THE JOYS OF QUARANTINE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 136, 5 December 1918, Page 6

THE JOYS OF QUARANTINE

While we must preserve an open mind until we hear the other side, we confess, that the Press delegation's case against the Health authorities, in connection with influenza on the Makura, has impressed! us deeiply. It is an indictment that will require a good deal of answering.' The principal questions raised may be formulated as follows: Was the removal of the five hundred, passengers (or, at any rate, some of them) to shore accommodation impracticable; and, if so, did the Health authorities render them all possible protection within their cramped and influenza-haunted quarters on th« ship? The answer to the first question must necessarily turn upon the amount "of suitable shore accommodation available, and the extent of the demand upon it—factors concerning \\;hich we possess no knowledge. But the second half of the indictment amounts to a charge of neglect—not only «£ failure to act, but of failure to adequately inspect and inquire If these fivo hundred passengers had to be left in the clan© codifineineut of shipboard, in comjwiity .yrifch disease, surety tiw^ werg

entitled to. fumigatory and other protection against infection. Perhaps there is need for some definition of responsibility as between the medical officers of a ship and tJhose of the Health authorities of the porE Perhaps, also, the latter may plead that the requirements of the epidemic ashore had impaired their physical capacity to aid ship-populations under quarantine. To pre-judge these matters would /be presumption; but we hope that the Health Department will realise the seriousness of the indictment.