CHURCHES
(Continuation)
147
The tracing of this building has necessitated considerable research and not a little speculation, as there is no indication on the print itself - a fairly large coloured lithograph - as to where the place was. The inscription on the original is in German, reading "Evangelisches Findelhaus Bethanien auf Hongkong in China" and as the print is undated the historian is set to evolve first a theory and then a few facts, leading, it is hoped, to final identification. The picture was acquired in a second-hand print shop in London last year, and appears to be a page torn out of some old German missionary publication.
The first indication of its origin is the mention of the Bethany Mission, which we know existed at Pokfulum in the Sixties, and the original conclusion was that this was the foundling home which the Germans opened at Pokfulum Road, in 1860. However, the topography, with the proximity of the building to the sea and a row of warehouses, made this theory untenable. Despite the exaggerated perspective - suggesting an indifferent artist, whose one idea was to emphasise the Home to the exclusion of the surroundings - there is sufficient of the background almost to rule out identification of the spot as being Pokfulum or West Point (where the old German Mission was situated for many years).
Furthermore, on looking up the earlier history of the Foundling Home we arrive at a definite conclusion that the locality shown here is intended to be Morrison Hill, with the old Wanchai godowns shown along the seafront. The artist made a poor job of it, with the building more prominent than it must have been, and looking as if perched on a cliff immediately above the warehouses. However, he has made a fairly accurate sketch of the Wanchai waterfront as other old pictures show it to have been in the Fifties, and the hills in the background, with Victoria Peak at the end of the ridge, are comparatively accurately drawn. So when we find in the old records that the first Foundling Home was situated near Morrison Hill the research seems practically complete, and the locality of the picture and approximate date are able to be deduced.
It is hoped this might clear up the question of the building: however, the head of the Rhenish Mission in Hongkong to-day is of opinion that the picture probably represents the later premises above Hospital Road, and that the artist mistakenly placed it much nearer the seafront than he should have done. Perhaps some reader might be able to confirm this?
Something of the history of this old Home was given a few months ago in an article in this series, but I shall repeat it for the purposes of having a complete reference to the place. It was actually the Foundling Hospital of the Berlin Women's Association for the Promotion of Female Education in China. This institution owed its origin to the exhortation of Dr. Gutzlaff, on behalf of Chinese female infants deserted by their parents when on a visit to Berlin in 1851. At that time the worthy doctor painted in such glowing colours the iniquity and the frequency of the Chinese habit of getting rid of their female offspring that the ladies of Berlin were moved to form an Association