Bay of Plenty Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 9th., 1924 EMPIRE AND HEALTH.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LII, Issue 8629, 9 July 1924, Page 4

Bay of Plenty Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 9th., 1924 EMPIRE AND HEALTH.

There is slowly evolving what was described recently as “a. soap and water school of imperialism,” says a London contemporary. From very small beginnings hygeine. or, in more exact term, prevention, has risen to a first place in the machinery of Empire, so that to-day within the British Commonwealth there is protection not only against enemies of flesh and blood, but against what Pasteur described as the “hosts of the infinitely small,” the seeds and germs of disease- No achievement of our race is more signal ; none has been productive of a greater benefit to* the whole of mankind. Whatever may be spoken of British administration throughout the world, tilis cannot be disputed- that everywhere the doctor lias followed flag. Disease lias been' been driven from its immemorial strongholds ; new weapons of safety have been forged and new barriers erected against calamity and suffering. The discoveries of ’Ronald Ross, for examples, have led not only to the" prevention of malaria iir great tracts of country, but to the further discoveries about yellow fever and to the war of extermination now being waged on that malady. Indirectly they have afforded clues the investigation of which, has enabled sanitarians to control the march of bubonic plague, to set bounds to the spread of typhus, and to attempt, in the light of the researches of David Bruce, the' eradication of the terrible African sleeping sickness. It is fitting that this, one of the noblest aspects of Empire, should find illustration and emphasis at the Great Exhibition. The King dwelt upon it in his opening speech ; it was referred to again and again during the Imperial Social Hygeine Congress. It is shown in a stinking manner* in the section devoted to Tropical Health, and will find further illustration in the forthcoming important conference arranged by the People’s League of Health. Even yet its full significance- lias not been apprehended. As Mr Amery declared recently, “if we want to develop our great dependencies. it can only be done by the creation of a healthy population.” That, again, demands the acceptance by every citizen of the Empire of the hygienic creed, “thet gospel of soap and water.” When every member of our Commonwealth has learned to regard disease with an active and constructive hate, so that the careless the uncleanly, the slattern, even the thoughtless, is seen as a traitor to the general good, the foundations of health will be secure. For such a ‘health conscience’ will speedily make an end of those who for gain or because of their lack of knowledge stand* in the way of progress. To-day, for example, the fact that children are dying in our cities from lack of sunlight, while it awakens uneasiness, does not wound the moral sense of the community as that sense is wounded by a crime of violence- It will assuredly be different to-morrow. Morality. indeed, is gradually acquiring a wider application and new sanctions as the truth is realised that a spiriutal as well as a physical value attaches to health. Sick men and - women have ever lacked the vision of hepe and the courage necessary to groat achievement.