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THE DUMPING OF PLAGUE BODIES.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
spread of plague in a neighbourhood is a far heavier penalty than a pecuniary inflic. tion. The severest problem would be the discrimination between cases of dumping and cases where a plague-infected person bas dumped himself down (if we may use the expression) to die.
Whether any solution to this problem could be found we caunot say. It is obvious that any system of fines would have to be carried out with the greatest possible caution. The idea, however, cannot be dismissed as entirely out of the question while the terrible evil of dumping is on the increase and the offenders can but so rarely be caught and punished.
THE PLAGUE EPIDEMIC.
The answer will be awaited with interest. But anyone who has paid attention to Police Court affairs must know that charges (Daily Press 8th June.)
of dumping and convictions have been As will be seen from the latest plague lamentably few in comparison with the returns the number of bodies found in the number of dead bodies found. This is not streets of Hongkong or on the hillsides surprising in view of the fact that those continues to form a considerable proportion intending to deposit a corpse in the street of the total cases. We learnt last Thursday have ample opportunities in the course of a from the reply of the Acting Medical Officer night of escaping police vigilance for the of Health to Mr. H. E. POLLOCK's questions necessary few minutes. As, however, it is at the Sanitary Board meeting that the plain that dumpers cannot well have current plague season has furnished the carried the body any considerable distance, highest percentage of finds" to cases on a scheme (well adapted to Chinese ideas) record. Last year, during a comparatively has already been advocated in former years mild epidemic, the number of discoveries of of punishing the neighbourhood in default of plague-infected bodies rose nearly eight per the actually guilty individual or individuals. cent. above the previously worst year, 1900. There are no doubt many difficulties in apply. Yet the 35.5 of 1902 has been totally ing such a scheme to Hongkong, but they can eclipsed by the 37.5 of this year. The dump hardly be considered insurmountable. As ing of bodies is a question which has been for the injustice of fining a street or part of frequently discussed in these columns auda street, it must not be forgotten that the elsewhere in the Press of Hongkong, while the sanitary authorities have not disguised their recognition of the important part taken in the continuance of the disease by this criminal practice. In the conclusion of his report, dated last December, on plague in Hongkong, Professor W. J. SIMPSON put among the five main causes of the endemicity of the disease here "the practice of dump ing dead bodies in the street and thus effectually concealing the infected houses." There is indeed no disagreement of opinion in the Colony as to the intimate connection between dumping of bodies and the per- sistence of the epidemic Nor can there be puch doubt that Dr. PEARSE was right in the conviction he expressed on Thursday that "disinfection and dumping stand in the mutual relation of cause and effect." The Acting Medical Officer of Health went on to say that, as he did not feel justified in recommending any serious alterations in the methods at present adopted to deal with plague, he was of opinion that "unless some method of bringing the offence home to the "offenders by severe punishment be devised we must always expect to have some bodies dumped in the streets!! Now it cannot be denied that there has been some mitigation of late of the hardships a companying the cleansing of infected premises, and we trust that the recent discussion of the methods of the disinfecting gangs will not be without its effect. But it cannot be hoped that the process of disinfection can ever be anything but distasteful to those who with their proporties have to undergo it-and who are for the most part people of a class entirely uneducated in matters of lygiene. There are no means of educating these people in the right direction fave what little can be done by the distribution of handbills) and there must be & limit to the deferring to the convenience of these unfortunate enough to be in the position of plague contacts. There is left therefore nothing but the question of puni- tive measures against dumpers." The third of Mr. POLLOCK's questions last Thursday ran as follows:- "How many "convictions in respect of the dum ing of dead bodies in the streets have taken place "before a Police Magistrate: (a) During "the year 1900; (b) during the year 1901; (c) during the year 1902; (d) from the "1st of January, 1903, to the date of report. What per alties were awarded "iu respect of each of such convictious, "and state tle cases it any, in which "the party
elected to pay the fine instead "of undergoing imprisonment?" Unfortu- nately the reply to this que-tion has not yet been made public, and it is therefore impossible to say at present to what extent the activity of the police has been rewarded,
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(Daily Press, 11th June.) The prevalence of plague naturally con tinues to absorb a great deal of public attention in Hongkong, and the number of European cases recently reported has of course made a considerable impression on the minds of the white comniunity here. Into-day's figures the occurrence of six more European cases, following on that of nine in twenty-four hours and four in the previous forty-eight, shows that in this year's record the proportion of European cases must necessarily be high. Yet, in spite of the inevitable disconcertment produced by such statistics, particularly after an abatement of the disease in 1902, it would be unwise to let any feelings of undue alarm gain ground. As far as we can discover, the type of the disease among the European patients has been generally mild. Indeel we have heard it suggested that а few people have actually been sufferers in a very slight degree with- out the fact being discovered; of course it is not possible to verify the truth of such a theory. Nevertheless, from the number of persons attacked, this year must rank unenviably high in the history of epidemics in the Colony, though fortunately we may now reckon ourselves to be at the climax of 1903. We are in the twenty-third week of the current year. In 1896 the culminating point was in the twenty-first week of the year; in 1898, in the nineteenth week; in 1899, in the twenty-fifth week; in 1900 in the twenty-sixth; in 1901, in the twenty. second; and in 1902 in the twenty-third. In all cases it may be said that the drop was very rapid when once the crucial point was reached. As the behaviour of the epidemic has been markedly regular, there is a certain am unt of satisfaction to be derived from these figures.
In other parts of the East plague seems to have made itself heavily felt this year. The latest detailed figure from Bombay, given in the Times of India of the 23rd
[June 15, 1903
May, showed 15,400 deaths from this cause in India in the previous week as against 20,000 in the week before that. The death- rate was then still double that of the same period in 1902. In Bombay city itself the week May 15th-May 21st showed 311 plague attacks and 296 plague deaths, the total for 1903 being 827 as against 1,132 in the same week of 1901 and 766 in the same week of 1902. The latest figures which we have seen of Bombay's population put it at about 850,000. As Hongkong's estimated population on the 30th June last was 311,824, we are able to arrive at some notion of the comparative severity of the disease in the two places, an I it will be seen that, heavier sufferer as it undoubtedly is, Bombay is not justified in deriding, as it has done in the past, the seriousness with which plague is treated here. It is but natural that any city should look on its own ills with a particularly sympathetic eye and on those of others with less attention. But, as it is not long since a Bombay criti- cism of Hongkong's attitude toward plague was quoted in an official despatch in order to counteract the effect of the local com. plaints publicly made, it is only just to point out that Hongkong is with good reason concerned over the struggle which it has to maintain.
RUSSIA IN MANCHURIA.
(Daily Press, 10th June.)
How little intention the Russians really have of retiring from Manchuria is evidenced not only by the constant increase of their military forces in that country, and the steps they are taking all the while to make their footing there permanent, but also by the determination shown to oust foreign trade. Even in such a small matter as the export of timber from the Yalu district they have seen fit to interfere. The Wei- haiwei Gold Mining Company, Limited, recently sent an order to the Yalu for timber for nse in the 'miues, but the. Russian military authorities refused to allow the order to be filled. As a matter of fact, Russia not only holds Port Arthur and district, she has established herself ou the Yalu and at Newchwang, and has no apparent intention of evacuating the coun- try, all statements to the contrary notwith- standing. The process by which the Russian Government set about this work of annex 1- tion is a simple but effective one. They instruct their officers to continue a forward policy, and when the seizure of a city, district, or province has aroused the ire aud subsequent protest of other Powers, they meet it with a polite disclaimer of any aggressive intentions. When various high- handed acts, showing what the intention of the Russian officers plainly is, have been committed, and further remonstrances. thereby evoked, these are met with frash disclaimers and the action of Russian officers solemnly repudiated,_he Powers begin to think that the Gov- rnment of the TSAR is actually sincere in its promises. But as time runs on, and no attempt is made to fulfil the pledges, an uneasy notion arises that the Powers are being fooled, that Russia is really in sympathy with no Power, an! that she is merely bent upon making herself paramount in China. Still, nothing is done beyond protests being entered. The allies-Great Britain and Japan-are loth to make a casus belli of the infringement of the Treaties by Russia, aş she is continually engaged in explaining that the action of her officials is not intended
the
to be what it seems; that she is only engage I in protecting the Tran Siberian Railway,
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