The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-12-11
LETTER FROM BISHOP WILLIS.

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EDITOR Bulletin
Permit me to thank you for your
editorial last evening, and at the
same time to say word in reply to
Equality"
The position taken up by the
Anglican Church Synod in regard to
leprosy and the Leper Settlement
has nothing to fear from a masked
assailant, who fears to show his face,
as he hurls his darts of misrepresent-
alton. 1t is an old device-but get.
ting timeworn and thin-for thwart-
ing reform. Insinuate into the pub
lie mind false and perverted view
of what is desired, and of the means
proposed for its attainment. In that
way you may SOW distrust, and rouse
antagonism. But to succeed the lie
should not be manufactured out of
whole cloth, as in the present in
stance. None, who have read the
dellverances of the Synod on the
question, are likely to be gulled into
believing that we desire ''that an
ironclad regulation be made to
starve, fine, punish, scourge, or i'm
prison in closer confinement until
death any leper who may yield to the
natural weakness of human nature" "
" bat the Synod does ask for, and
it asks it on behalf OF a nation, which
has not yet abandoned its title to be
called Christian, is that, if the daugh-
ters of its people, beng afflicted with
leprosy, must be taken from their
homes, they shall not be sent to a
place where they cannot be protect
ed from class of men who, in the
exercise of their "discretion, would
regard them as the lawful prey of the
passions of their degraded manhood.
Equality" enters the lists, with
visor down, as the champion of the
lepers, to tilt against the ghost of the
inqulsition, reflected into the arena
by his own imagination. But before
his first paragraph is ended, the farce
is concluded, and his true coIers are
displayed. What kind of a champi-
on of the lepers is he who could pen
such words as these to be read in the
settlement, "7He lepers are cast array
there to die" Cast array! To die |
Equality has taken his farewell of
them long ago. Dead must that man
be to all the finer feelings of human
ity, who will thus remorselessly close
the door of hope to every man, wo-
man and child who has been pro-
nounced leper, and say to them:
There is nothing to be done for
you; there is no cure, no remedy, no
alleviation for your disease except in
the grave. When you landed at Ka-
laupapa, you stepped upon shore
from which there is no return"
1t is against this heartless view of
their condition, this abandoning the
lepers to despair, that the Synod
protests. 1t believes that much NAV
be done for them. 1t asks that
remedial measures may be adopted,
which, if they cannot cure, are GER
,ainly able to improve the condition
1f the patients. 1t asks, also, that
hose III whom there are but slight
manifestations of the disease may be
Kept separate from the worst and ad-
'anced cases. For if, as | myself
lrmly believe, there are persons to-
lay at the settlement, who have been
ent there as lepers, but who have no
disease that could make them
ource of danger to the public health,
uch persons onght to be restored to
heir homes, and TO keep them in
laily and hourly danger of inocuIa-
ion is unjustifiable.
Yours faithfully,
BISHOP WILLIS.
lolani College, Dec. II, 1891.