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12D
THE REFUGEES.
From September 7th onwards, these unfortunate people were placed in the
old Strand workhouse at the request of the Government. This building had
been purchased by the Metropolitan Asylums Board as a home for mentally
deficients, and Dr. Leslie Gordon was engaged in preparing it for that purpose
when he was suddenly placed in the position of Medical Superintendent of
Refugees, with the assistance of Dr. Beels (from Antwerp) and later of Dr.
Figord also. The institution was used as a clearing house from which parties
of them were drafted to provincial centres, when they were ready to receive
them. So the numbers fluctuated from 750 to 1,100 persons, of whom about
one-half were children and one-third women. The children were naturally
inflammable material for infectious and contagious diseases of all kinds to attack
readily, more especially after their cruel treatment, exposure and starvation by
the German army in Belgium.
To the Sanitary Committee of October 7th I fully reported on the advent
of these Belgians and pointed out that this sudden addition of over 1,000 persons
to our population, many of them very 'susceptible to infectious disease, had
added considerably to the responsibilities of my department and myself. Many
questions regarding the control of infection and the promotion of sanitation in
and around the institution soon needed enquiry and settlement between Dr.
Gordon and myself.
On the 13th October, the Metropolitan Asylums Board took over the old
Strand School buildings for more refugees under the care of Dr. Beels, late of
Antwerp, whose linguistic abilities have been as valuable as those of the Junior
Woman Inspector, Miss Fay.
Infectious cases arising amongst the Belgians have been transferred at once
to the hospitals of the Board, and the bedding disinfected in the old fashioned
gas-heated oven of the workhouse. My Council did not see their way to help
in this direction. The Chief Sanitary Inspector arranges for the frequent
removal of the refuse by our contractors, and Dr. Gordon appointed sanitary
pickets to keep the W.Cs. and urinals in good order.
The Local Government Board has directed me to include the refugees
amongst the resident population, so that the vital statistics of this report have
been made out in two forms, i.e., with or without Belgians, in order to allow the
statistics of 1914 to be comparable with past and future years. In the past
the poor people in the buildings of the Strand Guardians have been regarded as
"foreigners" from a statistical point of view.