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nors be allowed to drop
Fleyen
Por
I have the honor to be
Lez
Your most obedient Servant,
za Frederick Stewart
Actg Colonial Secretary
Colonial Surgeon
Government Civil Hospital, Hong Kong
7th August, 1880
In accordance with the minute of His Excellency the Governor C.S.C. No. 1887 Thewe
I have the honor to report as follows.
From the letter of the Colonial Surgeon (C.S.O. No. 1870) it would appear that these rules are proposed because he labours under a difficulty in conducting the affairs of the Civil Hospital and because, and without them, he fears it will not be possible to obtain necessary information on the grounds there for the proposes to reduce the Superintendent of the Civil Hospital to the position of a mere house surgeon and to make it his principal duty to attend on the Colonial Surgeon.
With regard to these reasons, I would respectfully submit that the first is based upon a wrong assumption, and the fears expressed on the second are without any foundation.
The Colonial Surgeon speaks of his daily morning visits to the Hospital and of his conducting the affairs of the Hospital; now those are expressions calculated to mislead.
For they imply that the Colonial Surgeon is in charge of the Hospital; that he comes every day of the week at a regular hour, visits the patients, orders their treatment, and carries on the business of the Hospital from day to day. As a matter of fact, the Colonial Surgeon does not come to the Hospital but to his Office, which for convenience is in the Hospital building. He comes with his clerk every day, at a certain hour, to remain for a certain time. The business that he transacts there is that of the Head of the Department, with the clerical work of his office, and the only Hospital business he deals with is what passes into and through his hands as the Head of the Department.
With regard to the fears of the Colonial Surgeon as to the possibility of his obtaining information, the fact is that ordinarily what he seeks to obtain under regulations has always been despatched as a matter of course, and as a matter of routine, every question of importance which arises in the administration of the Civil Hospital is referred to the Head of the Department without delay. For any additional information he may require, the Colonial Surgeon has only to draw up another printed form, and it will be filled up as far as possible, as often as he may wish for it.
The position of Superintendent of the Civil Hospital, which I now hold, was conferred by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State in December 1872. I entered upon the duties of the office in February 1873, six months before Dr. Ayles arrived in Hong Kong, and from that