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REPORT BY THE HONOURABLE C. P. CHATER.
With one sole exception I fully concur with the opinions set forth in the report drawn up by Messrs. STEWART LOCKHART, THOMSON and HO KAI, but this I consider to be of such importance that I feel it incumbent on me to make some remarks upon the subject.
In my opinion, when we consider the question as to whether the Tung Wa Hospitai fulfils the object and purpose of its incorporation, it should be remembered that this institution performs two functions; as a benevolent and charitable organization, and as a hospital for the treatment and cure of the sick, and it should be studied in both aspects.
As a charitable organization, I admit at once that its work has been an admirable one: it has provided an asylum for the destitute, a refuge for the dying, and a burial for the dead, thereby averting the horrors that would have ensued, as we may gather from what has been said by Dr. AYRES and Mr. MCCALLUM, had paupers been permitted to die in the dens where they had lived. It has done much to promote vaccination, and used to house, and still continues to feed, the women and girls under the protection of the Pó Leung Kuk,
Unstinted praise is its due for such works as these, but when we turn to the actual hospital, the healing work, we find a condition of affairs which is far less satisfactory.
ence, pp. 25,
We find doctors who have never been to any medical college, for apparently there see evid are none in China to go to, whose only test of knowledge is to be able to write a thesis 25. on some subject to be approved of by their colleagues in the Hospital, who permit men to die because they will not or cannot perform a simple operation, and in Dr. ATKINSON'S words-"admit that they have no surgical knowledge, and cannot be responsible for the surgical enormities which have been and still will be carried on there, if they are "allowed to treat such cases.” We find too the horrible custom of herding the most foully diseased with their less afflicted fellow-patients, with the natural results; and in fact almost every law of hygiene slighted.
CC
Such a state of things, I venture to say, should not exist in a British Colony, and in an institution partly supported by the Government of that Colony.
I am well aware that if any attempt were made to introduce Western methods under Government supervision, such a step would mean withdrawal of all subscriptions at present contributed by the Chinese guilds, and it would only be with great reluctance that their representatives would consent to serve on the Committee.
I do not therefore advocate such a course, but I am convinced that there should be among the "doctors" of the Hospital at least one Chinaman who has received a training in Western schools, not merely to serve as a registrar and interpreter, but who would make it his business to quietly and gradually introduce their systems, and thus, very slowly perhaps, but surely, would pave the way for the appreciation and adoption of our methods of healing.
The question is one for the Government to settle, and I have no desire to seem to dictate, but personally I am convinced that this is the only way of making the Tung Wa a practical hospital. I need only point to the example of India, where now, in spite of the added difficulties of religious scruples and race hatreds, natives of every creed and nation come willingly to be treated in the Western fashion.
C. P. CHATER.
HONGKONG, 5th October, 1896.