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live to the present—I have continued to perform the duties more or less efficiently.
The Colonial Surgeon, in his report on the working of the Civil Hospital in 1874, was able to allude to the able supervision, activity, and care of its Superintendent, Dr. S. Wharry, of whose knowledge and performance of his arduous duties I can speak with great pleasure." In 1875, he wrote, "The working of the Establishment has been exceedingly good under the able superintendence of Dr. Wharry," and again in 1876, the Report read, "The working of the Establishment has been as good as it can be under the careful superintendence of Dr. Wharry."
The working of the Civil Hospital, as it went on there and through the lapse of years, appears to have produced a change in the opinions of the Colonial Surgeon. It has made no difference in the conduct of the Civil Hospital except to enable the Superintendent to increase the efficiency of the establishment.
If the hospital was well conducted before Magee came to Hong Kong, and for several years after his arrival, he was able, as the Head of the department, to think of the Superintendent in terms of the highest praise; the conclusion that the Superintendent of the hospital should now, as his sole reward for long service, submit to degradations of position and a diminished sphere of usefulness is one which will hardly commend itself to His Excellency the Governor as well-founded.
I have the honor to be,
Your obedient servant,
Edward C.J. Wharry, M.D.
To C. Anderson Wall, Superintendent,
Colonial Surgeon,
Government Civil Hospital,
Hong Kong, 13th August, 1880
The reply to your letter No. 95 of the instant, in which, by desire of His Excellency, you inform me that His Excellency the Governor thinks Dr. Wharry's report on the proposed hospital rules is well deserving of consideration, and that there is no need to drop it.
I have the honor to reply, having carefully considered that report, what I chiefly find in it is another proof of that attitude towards me which Dr. Wharry has now thought fit to assume, and which has been the subject of complaints in my previous letters, on which His Excellency has remarked, "that Dr. Wharry should show a disposition not to carry out Dr. Ley's instructions. I trust there may be no further delay in having the instructions of the Head of the Medical Department carried into effect," and reiterated that regret on perceiving the tone of the Superintendent's observations, which he considers ill-become a subordinate officer while commenting on the action of his superior.