Generous
6.
58
war
There is one aspect with which the Honourable the Financial Secretary has not dealt adequately and which should be weighed strongly against Income Tax as a temporary measure. I refer to the matter of organisation. As Income Tax is in reality a complex system of taxation, the organisation of the new adminis- trative forces for its collection will require a good deal of time and the normal revenue-yielding power will only be reached many months perhaps years after its enactinent. By the time the new machinery is in working order the war may have ended or be near its end. The more I think of this aspect of the question, the more I fail to understand why Government should choose Income Tax to finance the war budget,
Civil Servants Levy
Or
With reference to Mr. Caine's ob- servation that the Chinese members have made no specific suggestions for alternative taxes I would like to point out that in his speech the Honourable Senior Unofficial Member made it quite clear that he was speaking with the unanimous support of all the Unofficial Members when he asked Government for the appoint- ment of a committee to consider and make recommendations for suitable alternatives. My Chinese Colleagues and I have therefore decided not to make separate suggestions in that regard.
I will now close by paying a tri- bute to the Honourable the Financial Secretary for the public spirit and unselfish sentiment expressed in the final paragraph of his speech. To meet his laudable wish I think that Government can easily devise a scheme whereby all Government ser- vants whose salaries reach a certain figure should be subjected to a special levy as a war contribution.
If Government were to adopt such a scheme I feel sure the Public will readily and cheerfully submit to some alternative taxes which while enabling us to make a substantial contribution to the Imperial Govern- ment, would not be injurious to the Colony as would be the introduc- tion of Income Tax. (Applause),
DR. SELWYN-CLARKE
Dangerous Accommodation In Kwong Wah Hospital
COLONY'S SOCIAL SERVICES
I
Hon. Dr. Selwyn-Clarke said: am grateful to Your Excellency for giving me an opportunity of replying to some of the points the Honourable Mr. Pearce has just raised in his speech.
over me
The Honourable Member has re- ferred to "the rapid growth of the Medical Department." He has a con- siderable advantage
in! having spent so many years of his life in this Colony. If, however, by the use of the adjective "rapid" it is intended to suggest "recent" growth, I submit that this hardly gives a true picture of the position for reasons which I will give later.
In his speech on Thursday last, my Honourable and learned friend Sir Henry Pollock referred to the overcrowding and dangerous accom- modation in the Kwong Wah Hos-
pital. These are facts which can- not be denied.
My Honourable friend Mr. M. K. Lo also characterised the congestion in the Chinese hospitals as a standing disgrace, and he stressed the need for
children a hospital for
and for tuberculous patients.
It might be of interest to note that on the opening day of this debate the Tung Wah Hospital had 870 in- patients of whom only 189 had a bed to themselves. The maternity beds were all occupied and the demand on them is so great that it is cus- tomary for mothers to spend only four days in hospital at child-birth.
Hospital Committee Realising the urgent need to im- prove both hospital accommodation and the conditions prevailing in the Chinese hospitals here, Your Excel- lency appointed a Technical Hospital Committee last year over which I had the honour to preside. With the concurrence of the Chinese Directors of the Tung Wah Hospitals, Your Excellency also appointed at the end of the year an Executive Committee for these hospitals. Both the Senior Chinese Member of this Council (Honourable Mr. T, N. Chau) and the Honourable Mr. M. K. Lo are particularly valued members of this Committee. Both would, I feel sure, agree that, although the conditions in the Chinese hospitals still leave a very great deal to be desired, the progress made during the first eleven months of the work of this Committee has fully justified its appointment. During the period in question Gov- ernment has assisted with a grant-in- aid of $400,000 to the Tung Wah: Hospitals.
The Report of the Technical Hos- pital Committee has just been published and will, no doubt, receive the sympathetic consideration of this Government. The Honourable Mem- ber can rest assured that there is unlikely to be any "extravagance" in this connexion.
The Technical Hospital Committee concluded that the dearth of hospital : beds in Hongkong amounted to at least 5,000, taking the population at the very low figure of one and a quarter millions. The Committee was satisfied that this lack results in many sufferers, including of infectious disease, remaining in crowded tenements, thereby produc-| ing a vicious circle since they act as sources of infection to others--leaving aside altogether the humanitarian aspect.
:
cases
To Increase Accommodation In point of fact, Government has already taken steps to initiate work on site formation for a new infec- tious diseases hospital and, possibly, a new general hospital at the Kow- loon Medical Centre.
With Your Excellency's encourage- ment and support efforts have been made to increase the available ac- commodation on very simple lines. For example, the former prison at Lai Chi Kok now provides beds for 500 patients, the huts at Kennedy Town Hospital contain 45 beds, and the matsheds at the Kwong Wah Hospital mentioned by Sir Henry Pollock house 200 camp beds placed side by side in practically tinuous rows.
con-
These additions make little im- pression on the main hospital pro- blem, and many of the sick poor who should be admitted have to be turned away, unless room can be made for them by discharging patients not yet sufficiently recovered from their illnesses, but in less dire need.
It is sometimes forgotten by those more used to Western conceptions of medical care of the sick poor that thousands
upon thousands of the poorer Chinese live in grossly con- gested dwellings quite unsuited to home nursing.
believe I can hardly
that the Honourable Member who criticised the size of the Medical Budget really considers that hospital accommoda- tion should be curtailed so that a larger number of patients have to be refused admission or nursed on the floor, or even more than two to a bed.
25 Cents a Day
Nor can I bring myself to credit the Honourable Member with the desire that the quantity of food- costing about 25 cents a day-given to the wrecks of humanity treated in our hospitals should be reduced.
It scarcely seems possible that the Honourable Member would be pre- pared to advise a reduction in the vote for (and therefore in the quantity of) antiseptics for wounds, anaesthetics for operations, tetanus and diphtheria anti-toxin to save the lives of sufferers from these diseases, quinine for malarial patients, small- pox, cholera and typhoid vaccine for use in prophylaxis? And yet beds and bedding and food and drugs and vaccines do not drop like manna from heaven.
Concurrently with and to some ex- tent arising out of the impossibility of admitting all those to hospital in need of such care, the staffs of out- patient departments and dispensa- ries are compelled to work for long hours; insufficient time is available for adequate investigation, diagnosis and treatment of patients, many of whom have to endure long waits before being medically ex- amined. Those who might be re- stored to health are exposed to the danger of becoming chronic invalids --or of dying prematurely.
The death-rate for the first nine months of 1939 was nearly 34-con- siderably over three times that for England and Wales in 1938.
Be it
Part of the increase in the Medical Budget now under consideration re- lates to additional staff which it is desired to appoint to meet the heavy demand for medical services. noted that it is intended to recruit Chinese and other local graduates for this purpose-a point mentioned by my friend, the Honourable Mr. d'Almada in his speech last week.
As the Honourable Mr. Lo pointed out in his speech a week ago,
the loss of life in infants under one year of age is nearly seven times higher in Hongkong than in the United Kingdom.
Problem fo Malnutrition Malnutrition is no doubt an im- portant factor in this sad wastage, an unsatisfactory environment and ignorance of mother-craft coming next in importance.
In the Medical Budget, provision is made for a few thousand dollars to increase by one the number of Chinese lady doctors and by a small handful of Chinese nurses and health visitors to extend the welfare ser- } vices.
I can
hardly believe that the Honourable Member really thinks that the all too few clinics for mo- thers and babies should be curtail- ed.
It is scarcely necessary for me to remind Honourable Members of the burden of suffering and loss of life which occurs from preventible epide- mics in Hongkong. All are familar