intended for publication_, but found by the Commission among other Government papers, and published,--'That venereal disease has been _on the increase_, in spite of all that has been done to check it, _is no new discovery_; it has already been brought before the notice of His Excellency.'" (Report, p. 35, pars. 4 and 5.)
What is to be thought of the character of such reports for the _Public_, and such an _Official Report_, "not _intended_ to be _published_"?
This same Dr. Murray's Annual Report for the _Public_ for 1867, was _actually put in evidence before the House of Lords' Committee_ on venereal diseases--1868, page 135. "Venereal disease here has now become of _comparatively rare occurrence_." Yet the _Army_ Report for the previous year (1866, page 115) states that "the admissions to hospital for venereal disease were 281 per 1000 men;" i.e., more than one man in four of the whole soldiery had been in hospital for this "comparatively rare" disease.
As regards the Navy, Dr. Murray says, "the evidence of Dr. Bernard, the Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets, is even more satisfactory. He writes (Jan. 27), 'I am enabled to say that true syphilis is now rarely contracted by our men in Hong Kong.'" Yet the "China station," in which Hong Kong occupies so important a position, had at the time 25 per cent. more _sec