Sin,—L am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ultimo, containing copy of one from Dr. Maclesdl to yourself, both upon the subject of the growing necessity for a special hospital for infectious diseases and the insane, The reference to this subject in the Chairman's speech at the last annual meeting of Ratepayers, alluded to in your letter, itself evidence that the Council is alive to the need for such an institution, and inform you that the matter is one w been ut the notice of the members "clu the past si before the Ratepayers proposals for the" pro ion of the desired accommodation.
The Council, and indeed the commu is fully aware of the efficient tanner for many years the General Hospital has provided for the sick, whether the disease has been infectious or ho, and it is very generally recognised that any outbreak of an epidemic character would call for special emergent treatment, governed by circumstances as they arose. These conditions must still obtain unless and until the Ratepayers sanction a scheme for Municipal intervention.
It may not be out of place for me to remind you that the Council has now in process of erection large Departmental Buildings, a Central Fire Station, and a Gaol, and that with these current heavy demands on the available funds for public works in view, it will be a matter of possible difficulty to make the requisite provision for such a hospital next year, but I am directed to assure the Governors that the is lance of the matter is fully recognised and will be given due attention when the time arrives for the compilation of the Budget for 1902.
Tam, Sir, Your obedient servant, W. E. Levesos, Acting Secretary.
J.D. Tuornees, Esq, Secretary, Shanghai General Hospital.
The meeting then adjourns.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.