§ MR. T. C. H. HEDDERWICK (Wick Burghs)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the recently published statement of the Chairman of the Straits Settlements Association, purporting to disclose a deplorable and alarming increase of disease in the military and civil population of those possessions since, and consequent upon, the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Order; and whether he will inquire into the truth of the matter with a view to the adoption of such precautionary or remedial measures as may be necessary should the facts alleged prove to be well founded?
§ CAPTAIN D. V. PIRIE (Aberdeen, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Government are taking any action as to the state of matters disclosed by the investigations of it local committee of the Straits Settlements Association, and contained in a letter of 8th November, 1897, from the chairman of that association; and, if the statements of that letter are accurate, have the Government decided on the course to pursue?
§ MR. J. STUART (Shoreditch, Hoxton)Will the right honourable Gentleman lay on the Table the correspondence on this subject between the authorities of the Straits Settlements and the Colonial Office, and also the correspondence between the Colonial Office and other Colonies, on the same subject, in continuance of Papers laid on the Table from time to time?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIESI informed the Straits Settlements Association, in reply to their letter of 8th November last, that I am not prepared to sanction the re-enactment of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance in the Straits Settlements, but that I was conferring with the Governor as to whether other measures can be taken to check the spread of venereal diseases in that Colony. The correspondence with the Governor on the subject is not yet completed.