The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-03-31
PLAGUE ABROAD.

The Health Authorities in Sydney
that city when a ship clears from that
port The Moana which came from
there might have come from a perfect
~ clean port, while it is a known fact
that the plague conditions there are
worse than they have been in Homo
lulu. The authorities there evidently
mean to keep their port open, just as
Bombay and Calcutta remain open in
spite Of plague conditions.
Our present strict quarantine is only
the Federal Health Authorities. There
really is no longer any necessity for
such a dead open and shut quarantine
as is at present kept up, but the Board
is powerless to relax it as long as the
Federal authorities maintain the atti-
tude they do.
San Francisco has undoubtedly got
plague in it's Chinatown district. The
medical men are emphatic upon the
point, and in spite of the protests of
the press, there can be little hesitation
about admitting the fact. Politically
the effort is being made to show that
the plague is only a scare to cover a
raid on the city treasury. There have
been people among us who have held
the same view, but there has been no
doubt about our plague.
How is San Francisco going to meet
her plague question. 1t is a matter of
great interest to us to know. Though
the doctors have decided that the cases
are plague, though cultures of plague
bacilli have been made from animals
inoculated with bacilli from those who
have died. and though a bacteriologist
of the California University has I'M
hesitatingly pronounced that the Gull
lures contain the bacilli of bubonic
plague, no official action with regard
to the bills of health of vessels leav-
ing there has been taken.
1t looks very much as if the com
merce of San Francisco will go on I'M
disturbed by the fact that plague is in
the city. Chinatown will be strictly
quarantined, or as strictly as it is pos
sible, but we know that it is almost
impossible to quarantine strictly, even
with a Gordon of troops around an in
feCted district. If plague gets out of
/ Chinatown and appears in any other
parts of the city the house in which
the case occurs will be quarantined
and those who live in it will be sub
jected to quarantine in some designated
place, as has been in use here. But
the traffic on the trains win not be
stopped, of that we may be assured.
It was not stopped in Japan, and it
was not stopped in Bombay, nor has it
been stopped in Sydney. Nor will the
coastwise traffic be stopped. They may
have four times the number of cases of
plague that we have had and they will
will be simply impossible for them to
maintain a quarantine such as we have
here.
Now if this is the case we should
have the same treatment as the big cit
les have. The number Of plague cases
we nave udu uuIllB the last lllIee weeks
have only been three. There are no
further cases on the Island of Maui,
where the plague was caught in time
and instantly crushed as it were. We
are more free from plague than Sydney
is; more free from plague than San
Francisco's Chinatown, and infinitely
more free than Hongkong. Is it not
proper and just for the federal authori-
ties to change their attitude towards
us and allow our commerce the freedom
which 1t needs. If any place ever made
great sacrifices to stamp out disease
this place has. 1t has poured forth
money like water in a most gallant
fight, and consideration should be
shown to us as soon as possible, for our
commerce has suffered unduly.