Sessional_Paper_1935 — Page 6

2

11. No asylum, as contemplated in the Ordinance, has yet been established, probably owing to the fear that such would attract from South China a large number of lepers whom the Colony should have no proper claim to support.

12. We consider that a leper asylum should be established in the New Territories but that this should be under the control of some missionary or philanthropic body with a subsidy from the Government based on the number of genuinely local cases admitted. We therefore recommend the deletion of that part of section 2 of the Ordinance which prohibits the establishment of a leper asylum by a private person.

13. We consider that segregation in such an asylum should no longer be com- pulsory in cases where ordinary medical treatment is considered sufficient. If so, we are of the opinion, from the experience of other countries, that accommodation for at most 100 local lepers would be found to be adequate at least as a start. Although lepers in an advanced stage of the disease would probably greatly prefer life in an asylum to the wretched existence which is the only alternative elsewhere, we consider that their removal to such an asylum, at the discretion of the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services, and their retention there, should continue to be legally enforcible. In this we are equally influenced, as indicated above, by the rights of the public to be spared the distressing sight of lepers in the streets.

14. We consider that the references to the Governor or to the Governor in Council called for under the present law are unnecessarily cumbrous and that more discretion should be given to the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services.

15. As the treatment of leprosy in its early stages is reported to us to be most effective when applied in clinics we recommend that, so far from segregation being compulsory in such cases, private practitioners, hospitals and health centres should be encouraged to treat leprosy by recognized methods. We consider that the Medical Authorities should be notified confidentially of all caess of leprosy, but in our opinion this will not be opposed when it is known that segregation will not normally be en- forced.

16. To prevent the influx of lepers from elsewhere into the Colony's asylum we consider that entry should still be prohibited and that the right to deport such cases should be preserved. But in our opinion any genuine resident of say three years standing should be admitted to such an asylum regardless of the question of British nationality.

17. We recommend that Ordinance No. 24 of 1910 should be either amended in accordance with the above recommendations or, if the alterations are considered too drastic, repealed and replaced by another Ordinance.

18. Our only other specific recommendation is that the Government should approach some suitable missionary or philanthrophic body with a view to the establish- ment of a leper asylum on terms to be agreed upon.

11th January, 1935.

N. I.. SMITH, Chairman,

A. R. WELLINGTON,

M. K. LO,

LI CHUK.