CAMPAIGN, To the Editor of the "Nor: wa Daruy News." 81n,—From the account of the Speci Ratepayers' Meeting that appears io your issue of the 15th, it is noted that the wor of the new By-Laws to be limited down to the Bnbonic Plague alone, is to be settled in consultation with the Consular Body.
In this connexion, I desire to call attention to 8 point which seems to have eecsped the consideration of the sathorities so far, I refer to the impreition of fines upon Chinese in the event of their failure to notify the Council of cases of plague.
Tt seems to mo that this measure will defeat its own end.
It roust be admitted that most of the Shanghai Chinese and those from the Northera provinces have neve rd of plague except through such literature circulated at the instance of the Manicipal Council. When plague makes ite appearance among these peoples, the first thing they do will be to turn the care t some Chinene quacks, who, like themselves, have never beard of plague, They will have no opport tanity of knowing that it is case o-plague until the patient dies, In that hour of despair they are apt to forget the By-law in question, if their tradi prejudices do not forbid their complying with its conditions. One may rest as-sored that, io that event, if the By-law becomes operative, the '"council can cond scores of men into prison, But what good does it do, unless the Council wishes to add to the task of the Health Officers the necessity of fumigating the prison itself at frequent intervals The history of Chinese legislation bribery in worthy of repetition It is provided in the statutes of at any official accepting bribes amounting to ten taels or upwards shall loge his life, It in hardly necessary to say that every Chinese official acts a rutch higher value on his life and yet, it is never io danger. The trath is the more vigorous is the law, the more general is the crime, no long aa the public at large remsics ignorant of the consequences of the crime itself, Sioee the object of the By-law io question is not the amassing of a great amount of fines or the it ceasing of the inmates of the Chinese prison, would it not be better to offer a liberal reward for every case reported or notifed, 57 far as the Chinese residents of the Settlements ra concerned, iostesd of the impost of heavy figes as has been proposed?
Before conclasiov, I would like to refer, also, to two oft-repeated saggestions, which, wy opinion, would go a long way to initaize the cause for us tive hey are employment of competent Chinese medical practitioners to accompany the Health Department Officials in making: their inspections, and (2nd) the establishment of an isolation hospital ander the joint care of the Manicipsl Council and leading Chinese of the Settlementa, Tam, etc.
A Cauness Resipenr.
Shanghsi, November 16, 1910.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.