1
154
LORD SALISBURY'S DEATH..
|
|
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
recluse and a student than a leader of the people. For the latter bis spe che: had (Daily Press, 25th August.) little magnetism; they were addressed The death last Saturday of Lord SALISBURY almost entirely to a cultured hudience. was an event unfortunately anticipated His occasional bitterness of language, his for several weeks past. As soon as it was indiscretions, did not tend to win him known that the ex-Premier was seriously general liking while he was still in the ill, it was felt that his chances of recovery midst of the Parliamentary fray. Yet in must be small. Never man of robust hin Cabinet the feeling toward him is physique, he was yet a tireless worker, who said to have been o:e of strong affection. from choice as well as from stress of Since he retired into privats life it might circumstance devoted himself unceasingly to almost be said that be has gained that his desk. Frequently during the latter popularity whith he made no effort to years of his tenure of the Premiership be win while he was before the public eyes. was compelled by indisposition and sheer At any rate it is certain that his death will over-strain to relinquish for a while his be most sincerely and widely mourned in. duties, When finally he retired from all sections of society. He leaves behind public life last year, though hope was the memory of a strong and dignified figure, universally expressed that he would live to
who devoted all his best energies to the enjoy many years of the leisure he had so well service of his conutry, never going out of earned, it was not with any confidence that his way to court applause, and, if he his well-wishers looked forward to a pro occasionally spoke too lightly in debate, longation of his life. Bon at Hatfield always thinking earnestly and well. Of Hertfordshire on the 3rd February, 183), his foreign policy, by which his claims ROBERT ARTHUR GASCOYNE-CECIL, third to greatnes must chiefly be judged, Marquess of Salisbury, was thus over 73 it would be impossible to speak com- years of age when he die He was educated|prehensively without devoting to its at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, and consideration more space than we have in 1853 was elected a Fellow of All here available. Unfortunate that policy Souls, Oxford, in the same year in which was seen at its weakest when Far Eastern he first entered Parliament as Conservative aflairs were concerned, and many are the member for Stamford, a seat which he held mistakes of the SALISBURY administration for fifteen years. In 1857 he married the which British residen's in China have had wife whose death after many years of to lament. There seemed always to be a happiness wat so sad a blow to his later lack of just appreciation of the facts, a years. In 1866 he was made Secretary for
want of any special knowledge of the India, while two years after, on his father's circumstance, an absence of intelligent no doubt to the death, he succeeded to the Marquisate of guiding-largely due Salisbury. It was not, however, until | shortcomings of the Government's advisers 1876 that he was able to come to the in China at the time, who, however, it front. In that year he was appointed must be remembered, were appointed by special ambassador for Great Britain for that Government presumably as suitable the conference at Constantinople; and his nen for their places. Better hopes were resulting succession to Lord DERBY in the inspired during the last year of Lord Foreign Office and attainment of the post SALISBURY'S rule, and it must not be for- of British plenipoteutiary at the Congress gotten that the Anglo-Japanese Convention of Berlin gave him a name known through- was the final act of his policy here. I out the world. So it came about that at that compact we must see an act of redemp. the death of Lord BEACONSFIELD in 1881 tion for past mistakes which now it is Lord SALISBURY's claims to succeed him as useless to regret. Whether it will much leader of the Conservative party were help to restore the proper balance of affairs paramount. For four years he led that in the Far East still remains to be seen, but! party in the Lords, until in Juue, 1885, be
we may at least be permitted to hope. It took office after the defeat of the Liberal
was a noteworthy act of statesmanship and Government's budget; but in the following a sincere attempt to improve the situation. November the electorate again gave a majo- As we have s .id, Britain's Far Eastern policy rity to Mr. GLADSTONE and the memorable was the weakest feature of Lord SALISBURY'S period of the Home Rule Bill came ou, career. That he was in most other respects leading to the foundation of the Unionist a great Foreign Minister cannot be denied. party, which under Lord SALISBURY has It is to his policy as a whole that we must gradually developed into what it now is. look on the occasion of his death, which in Lord SALISBURY in the second year of the common with his countrymen all over the new Government resumed the position of world we sincerely mourn to-day. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which. he had held in 1870-80 and in 1885, and in the Foreign Office passel what must have been the most arduous hours of his life. From January, 1893, to June, 1895, a Liberal Government, first under Mr. GLAD- We have received from H.E. the Governor STONE and then under Lord ROSEBERY, a copy of an extremely interesting memor. ruled the country. In 1895 Lord SALISBURY! dum by him on the result of the treatment commenced his third and last administration, of patients in their own houses and in the one in which his statesmanship and his local hospitals during the 1903 epidemic. physical strength alike wee so hardly The memora dum represents the experience t.ied. In 1900 he was obliged to give up gained by an experiment undertaken by His the Foreign Office, retaining the Premier Exc llency to ascertain how far it may be ship until July of last year, when exhausted possible to enlis the co-operation of the Nature would no longer allow him so to task Chinese in the task of fighting plague in himself any longer.
Hongkong. Sir HENRY BLAKE points out It has been remarked that the memories that the Colony has been scourged by of Britons well advanced in middle age plague for ten years and that the proportion cannot travel back to the days when. Lord of cases found " dumped has increased SALISBURY was not great a Parliamentary from 25.1 per cent. in 1898 to 32 7 in 1903. figure. Yet he was not in his earlier days, The latter lamentable fact he attributes it might almost be said that he was not up to the dread of the disinfecting process to the time of his retirement, a popular as carried out by the Sanitary Board.
this process man. By disposition he was rather a Roughly,
means that
|
#
8
H.E, THE GOVERNOR ON PLAGUE.
(Daily Press, 26th August.)
}}
од
[August 29, 1903,
the death of a person from plague a policeman is at once placed in charge of the house, all the inmates being de- tained until their clothes are disinfected. "This detention," says the memorandum,
may be for twenty-four hours; but in many cases it may be for forty-eight hours if the body is removed to the mortuary late in the day. Moreover, in addition to the loss occasioned to the inmates from a day or two's enforced idleness, it seems that the Chinese com- plain that the disinfecting gang is in the habit of exacting "squeezes" under threat of injuring furniture, etc., which has to be disinfected. This could not be proved, but the idea was prevalent. To allay the feeling, Sir HENRY BLAKE arranged in conjunction with the medical authorities and the Chinese members of the Sanitary Board that in each health district the inhabitants should appoint a kaifong or committee to receive notices of disinfection and in conjunction with the Sanitary Inspector to appraise damages done. Still no appreciable effect was produced as far as the practice of dumping bodies was conceraed, ́ Als", rat- traps set in Chinese houses were sprung by the inmates, to prevent the catching of possibly infected rats on their premises. The rat-catchers, it seems, were accused of making undue use of their position to get
"
squeezes." Not only this, but rats were imported from the villages and even from Canton and Macao in order to gain the bonus offered for them. So in spite of the sanitary machinery the epidemic continued on its usual course. "The question then presented itself," says the memorandum, whether the passive resistance of the population to disinfect on might not be overcome and whether, if the Chinese "could be brought to realise the necessity
<f
"
24
LL
for it, their attitude might not be entirely changed." His Excellency determind to make the attempt, and the result was the experiment in the block in Second and Third Streets, which we recently recorded in detail.
*
+2
"
We need not go into the particulars of this experiment, which must still be fresh in our readers' minds. As will be remembered, one of the most important features observed was the presence of plague bacilli in bugs, spiders, and vermin generally. Sir HENRY BLAKE goes on, in the document before us, to speak of the wide distribution of plague infection in animal food, and continues:-"I have for a considerable time been of opinion that man is himself subject to chronic plague, which
either may
piss away after a considerable time, or continue dormant over the winter months, regaining activity with the annual movement of Spring,. "when the curve of the epidemic is almost "constant.
In June, I directed Inspector GIDLEY to obtain as many specimens of blood as possible, on slides procured from the Government Bacterio- logist.
Of these people examinod "at random, 4,54 per cent. were found to "be infected with plague, though to all appearance perfectly healthy. If we es- clude all the well-to-do, and take the "working coolie population alone, they "probably number 180,000, and assuming "the same average amount of infection, "there are among
that class alone "8,172 persons at present infected in "Hongkong." If this ca i he substantiated, it is indeed an astonishing fact to template. Sir HENRY BLAKE says, in conclu- sion to his memoraudum¦---“ The problem before us is, then, not simply the proven- "tion of introduction of plague from without, a precaution taken singly that, considering "the wide infection of the city must be
C
"L
con-
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.