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The object of the Medical Inspection was to ascertain if an alien was undesirable
on account of:—
(a) The absence of the means of decently supporting himself and his
dependents (if any), or
(b) Being a lunatic or an idiot, or owing to any disease or infirmity likely
to become a charge upon the rates, or otherwise a detriment to the public.
Daring the period, 77,295 aliens were medically examined, and 1,368 were
refused leave to land.
At first the rejections were numerous, but when the shipping companies who
brought undesirable passengers found that they had to return them whence they came,
they found it to their interest to have them all medically examined before embarkation,
and as the standard of fitness at the port of departure was based upon the standard of
examination in London, the number of rejections on immigrant vessels became
ultimately very few.
It is, however, known that many aliens undesirable on medical grounds found
their way into this country on vessels not carrying the requisite number of alien
steerage passengers to constitute them as " immigrant vessels " within the meaning of
the Act, thus they escaped any medical inspection.
On one occasion a vessel arrived and declared 20 alien steerage passengers, and so
was not an "immigrant vessel." The discovery of an American passenger on board
who had been considered as English raised the number to 21, and the passengers were
then carefully examined, with a result that six cases of trachoma were discovered who
were rejected and sent back after appealing to the Immigration Board,
The arrangement under which I have been acting as Medical Inspector of Aliens
in the Port of London terminated after notice from the Home Office on December 31st,
1914.
In connection with these duties, since the Act came into force, a certain amount of
clerical work has had to be done, and this has been willingly performed by the clerical
staff, in addition to the ordinary clerical work of the Port Sanitary Authority.
REFUGEES.
On Thursday evening, 3rd September, 1914, Dr. Buchanan, the Acting Principal
Medical Officer of the Local Government Board, telephoned that a large number of
Belgian refugees, 50,000—100,000, were expected to arrive at Tilbury from Antwerp.
It was reported in the press that these refugees would have to leave Antwerp before
midnight on the 4th September, and the probability, therefore, was that they would be
packed on such vessels as were lying in that port, possibly cargo boats without proper
accommodation for a number of passengers, or even sufficient food on board for the
voyage, and therefore they might arrive at any time.
The matter was very urgent, so I visited Gravesend forthwith, and all the necessary
arrangements for dealing with the arrival of a large number of such people, were ready
by 5 p.m. of the 4th September; these were as follows:—
(1) A medical inspection of all persons on board to ascertain whether anyone
was suffering with a dangerous infectious disorder.
Your Medical Officer of Health, with three assistant Medical Officers, were
available for this work, whilst Dr. Buchanan had kindly offered the services of
three of the Local Government Board Medical Inspectors to assist in the work
of inspection.