July 18.
A small but significant paragraph published by us at the end of last week brings up a subject likely to be of the first interest to readers who live in the French Concession. In the form of a translation from the French Bulletin Municipal, it dealt with the existence of insanitary groups of Chinese dwellings in the midst of foreign residential areas, and our readers may remember that it was made an instruction to the Sanitary Service to prepare a report and recommendations. That was a hopeful sign for those who have for long had to live in close proximity to these places, and it gives us satisfaction to be able to announce that since then drastic action hag been decided _upon by the French Council. To start with the power of the law is to be invoked if these plague spots ave not summarily excised by the owners of the land, and thereafter it is hoped that local legislation can be enacted to place such power in the hands of the Council that these eyesores will be made automatically to disappear. When the present condition is explained and the difficulties to be surmounted are presented to the public, the work of the French Council will be readily appreciated even by those who do not suffer from the contiguity of these hamlets, while those who know all about them will realize the debt of gratitude which they owe to the originators of the reform. The paragraph to which we have alluded mentioned Dr. Tartois as bringing the case into prominence, and it is well to recognize the driving
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.