Enclosure to!.
0.
1520
404
Government Civil Hospital.
Hong Kong. Diameter 10 an
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of Government Order of yesterday No 2469 1/86 enclosing copy of Report of 29th ultimo.
I have little to add to my statements now before the Council
and I repeat my protest against these proceedings in toto.
The intimation contained in Colonial Secretary's Letter of the 16th November is entirely opposed to that conveyed to me in Government Order of 16th October, and I was thus placed in a dilemma.
The latter expressed the great displeasure of the Acting Governor at the possibility of a patient brought to the Civil Hospital dying without seeing the Superintendent, and the former is to the effect that His Excellency expects Dr Wherry to absent himself from the Civil Hospital frequently and for long periods.
I received no positive order from the Acting Governor concerning the Medico-legal work, and I continued to carry out the instructions of the Secretary of State that I should take sole charge of the Civil Hospital.
It is contrary to the spirit of the Colonial Office Regulations, to the practice of the service, and to simple justice, to institute the most extreme proceedings against Dr Ph B. C. Ayres, Colonial Surgeon.