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Mr. CHATER--Is there anything else you would suggest?-I understand there is a representative of the Government inspecting the Hospital now. If that gentleman is in sympathy with the idea of training the Chinese, he ought to be able to effect great im- provement. With all this talk of Chinese conservatism, I notice that they have adopted some English ideas in the Tung Wa. The Chinese Directors of the Tung Wa appear to me to be like a Board of Poor Law Guardians, and the Colonial Surgeon goes to the Tung Wa as the Local Board Inspector in England.
Mr. WHITEHEAD--The difference being that the Colonial Surgeon does not speak Chinese and that the Chinese doctors and attendants in the Tung Wa do not speak
English.
WITNESS--The doctor who inspects should be a Government officer and should have a representation on the Advisory Board of the Hospital. He should be medical. member of that Board.
THE PRESIDENT-The Registrar General has always acted as the intermediary between the Government and the Hospital directorate.
WITNESS--Somebody has not looked into the details regarding bedding and clothing. There should be regulations similar to what we have in our own hospitals, where every, thing is done in accordance with rules and nothing is left to the whim of the attendants.
Dr. Ho KAI-I do not think it would be a difficult thing to get the Chinese to change their sheets; it would be more a matter of means. What we would like to learn from you is whether you would advise us to go bang into the matter and force the Chinese to adopt in the Tung Wa Hospital European medicine only, and for that purpose we should put in there a European doctor to use firm pressure and cure people according to Western medical science. Another suggestion is to do it gradually--to find a sympathetic officer, introduce these young men and gradually work a change in the opinions of the Chinese. What do you think of these proposals ?—Every young Chinese assistant brought into the surgical ward would be a great power for good. That should be done first, and leave the changes in the purely medical department till afterwards. In nothing so much as in surgery is Western science aher of the Eastern ideas.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-There are some Chinese and some Europeans also who refuse to undergo surgical operations. How far does the Government of India recognise a man's right to refuse surgical treatment ?-A man can refuse to be operated upon. However seriously wounded a man may be he can refuse to be operated upon. It has gone so far in the army that if a man had varicose veins and I offered to operate upon him, and expressed my confidence to be able to cure him, he has it in his power to refuse, and we have got to invalid that man.
Do you think the object of the Tung Wa could be fulfilled by any other organisa- tion here?—I am in favour of the place being allowed to grow up and develop. You could build another place for it.
It is not a question of building; can the present organisation be improved or some other one created to take up the work that it is now being done?
THE PRESIDENT-It is hardly fair to put that question to Surg.-Col. EvATT as be has had a very short experience of Hongkong.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-He has had a large experience in dealing with natives in India and in connection with hospital work there.
THE PRESIDENT-But Surg.-Col. EVATT has told us that they have no hospital of the same kind in India.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-At the Civil Hospital and the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals a great many Chinese are treated at present according to Western methods. The Tung Wa, so far, has not adopted these methods. Have you anything
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