22nd February.
Salus populi supreme lee, The care of the public health is the highest law. There is no higher duty laid upon the Municipal Council than the safeguarding of the health of this large population, and this duty has been always recognised by the Council and fulfilled as completely as the constitution of our republic which is contained in the Land Regulations allows. But when an emergency arises, it will not do for the Council to confine itself too straitly within the four corners of the Regulations, which, drawn up as they were for a small foreign community, cannot provide exhaustively for the needs of such a large city as Shanghai ha become. An emergency has arisen now. Ina long drought such as we are experiencing Shanghai is particularly liable to epidemics; and at such a time the Council must be prepared to strain their powers in their battle with infection. 'They have done this safely before and they may do it safely again, if they take care to get the consent and appro' of the Consular Body, and this consent has never been wanting in the past when the action proposed to be taken by the Council was necessary for the public security, and the end desired was not to be otherwise attained. To make a_prac-fice of straining the Land Regulations, or to strain them at all except at a crisis which cannot be met without doing so, would be a grave mistake; bu when a case of real necessity' arises, in which the Consular Body agree with the Council—and the common sense of the Consular Body may be trusted to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.