January 19, There is no longer any room for doubt that plague has assumed serious proportions in Manchuria, and in view of the position of these three Eastern Provinces on the high road between Europe and the Far East, the epidemic constitutes a grave menace to the rest of China. It is supposed to have originated among Chinese employed in hunting an animal known in the native dialect "Han Ta," resembling, but than, a marmot. The skins were being collected by a trader for export to America, and in spite of the fact that this animal is held to bear the same relationship to the form of plague endemic in Mongo-Tia that the rat bears to bubonic plague, the Chinese not only collected the ski but used the animals for food well. They proved by their habits and absence of physique excellent subjects for plague, while the conditions under which they lived supplied the means for propagating the disease. The epidemic is understood to hi made its appearance first in not western Manchuria, south of Khailar on the Chinese Eastern Railway. Steps were taken to cope with it by the Russian authorities as soon as it reached the towns on the line, but failure to regard it as seriously as the conditions warranted and the indifference of the Chinese in that region to all considerations of hygiene and to ordinary precautions against the disease allowed the plague to spread. It has now taken such a hold upon the country, that even the Chinese official has been stirred to action, while the people fat large in their helplessness and ignorance cither submit passively to its ravages or blindly seek to escape from the sphere of infection. The danger to other parts of China lies in the possibility of free access being afforded to inhabitants of the infected area. For this reasons the vigorous measures row being adopted in the north to draw a cordon round central and northern Manchuria must meet with general approval, and it will be hoped that they will achieve the desired end.
best way to combat plague is to provide against it before it comes. After its appearance there can be no half-measures. Whether the Chinese will appreciate now the truth of these axioms is not altogether certain. In Peking the officials have been thoroughly alarmed, but mach distance haste be traversed before their fears can be expressed inaction in the plague centres. time such as the present it is fortun nate for China that she is able to count upon the strenuous co-opera tion of Russian and Japanese anthorities in Manchuria, She is assured too, as at all times, of the ready astance of foreign volunteers, who will spontaneously place their services at the disposal of the Chinese Government to combat the dread scourge. One of these volunteers has already sacrificed his life in the cause of humanity, but others will come forward to take his place. All that is likely to be asked of the Chinese Governmentis that it should give these experts hand, caus tioning local officials to abstain from all obstruction and to assist them by the whole-hearted execution of their recommendations. There is or will be in Manchuria among Rus-Japanese and other foreigners 0 knowledge required to cope successfully with the epidemic. All that is necessary is that the offers of help should be accepted unreservodly and at once, and that everything should be done by the Chinese official to save the people from the evil consequences of their own ignor rance and preju Where action rests with the Russians or Japanese the measures adopted are likely to be thorough. According to one correspondent, all Chinese living in the Pristan quarter of Harbin were laced under arrest and escorted to the observation barracks in old Harbin, there to be kept under inspection for five days. The procedure is drastic, but there can be no doubt that itis in the interests of the Chinese themselves as well as of the whole community of Harbin,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.