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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 4
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 326 M.
HONG KONG.
144
W.O. No. 4828/7/216.
Admy. No. M. 0692.
Hospital Accommodation in War.
Memorandum by the Colonial Defence Committee.
The
THE War Office have referred to the Colonial Defence Committee a letter, dated the 3rd March, 1904, from the General Officer Commanding in South China on the subject of the provision to be made at Hong Kong for sick and wounded in war. letter and its enclosures are printed as Appendix I, and subsequent correspondence between the War Office and Admiralty as Appendix II.
2. It was estimated by the iocal Conference, comprising the Principal Naval, Military, and Civil Medical Officers, that provision should be made for 3,000 men from the Fleet and 1,000 from the military and civil population "quite outside any existing mobilization scheme." It was proposed that the more severely wounded officers and men should be treated in existing naval, military, and civil hospitals, which could accommodate 526 cases, that 260 slightly wounded officers should be placed in hotels and the City Hall, and that accommodation should be provided for about 5,000 men in matsheds in the Cricket Ground, Recreation Ground, Happy Valley, and Government Civil Hospital Compound. Of the staff required, 30 of the 60 medical officers are said to be obtainable in the Colony, the remainder, with apparently the majority of the attendants and nursing sisters, "would have to be obtained elsewhere." It is estimated that there are sufficient medical and surgical stores in the Colony to last for a month. It is stated that if these general proposals were approved, it would be a matter for consideration by whom the matshed accom- modation and hospital furniture would be provided.
3. Chapter III (G), "Action by Principal Medical Officer" of the latest printed Defence Scheme for Hong Kong, viz., that revised to June 1903, provides for the medical requirements of the garrison only: 449 heds already equipped are allotted, and it is contemplated to open two hospitals, described as "base hospitals," in Victoria Barracks and in Whitfield Barracks, Kowloon, equipped with 132 and 125 beds respectively, thus bringing the total number of beds to 706. The Government Civil Hospital will be utilized for the sick and wounded of the Chinese coolie corps. The medical care of the sick will be carried on as at present by the R.A.M.C. and I.M.S., who will proceed to their dressing stations with the troops of the sections of defence to which they have been detailed. When this takes place, 6 civil medical practitioners will assist in looking after the sick and wounded in the "base hospitals," to which the wounded will be transferred, the ordinary sick as in peace time being sent to the station hospitals. The percentage of the garrison on which the increased number of beds is calculated is not stated in the Defence Scheme.
Chapter VI (8), "Action by Principal Civil Medical Officer," states that this officer will have action to take in connection with the provision of additional medical
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