PLAGUE PRECAUTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 17 February 1911, Page 2

PLAGUE PRECAUTIONS.

' Sif ( t; Jttdgmg! by, tile £r4ss, it.seeiis.that the alarming-accounts of the great plagtie mortality in Manchuria .have'not aroused any uneasiness horoj and, iniconsequence, probably no extraordinary precautions have been takeii in su<!h- apparently remote parts as this. There was' a great scare some ten years 6go when the dread visitant for the fii'st time gently tapned at our doors—all precautions were taken with the shipping, 4nd eveii plague hospitals erc6tcd. Now we have made up our minds that our house-is "swept ana garnished," and that wo are immune. Why should wo bo? The outbreak may now seem endemic, in tho East, but at any time it may assamo its, epidemio forrti, adaptable to any climatic condition. At periods punctuated by centuries, the plague has appeared as a 1 world's scourge, sweeping every known country and clime. History teaches its reappearance after great famines and wars. . We have in Manchuria, under the beat' Asiatic spawning' conditions, the, graveyard of- the most murderous war in history, where Jap and Slav lio heaped, in • their tens of tniusands—perhaps to again "stagger humanity." However that .may be, it certainly behoves us in view of modern facilities fof its spread to take every care at our ports against infection fromforeign.shipping, especially in tho direction of destroying rats on the waterfront. Trusting you will sound the tocsin, —I am, etc., m • T.,. SHEPHERD. Waiknnae, February 12. '