CO129-388 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1912 [1-2] — Page 297

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The hon. member expressed satisfaction with the

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lunatic asylum so far as it related to the Chinese. I have been going into the question lately, and I hope that we shall, as the senior unofficial member said, be able to expedite the transfer of Chinese lunatics to the excellent institution at Canton. I propose that the Principal Civil Medical Officer should visit that asylum and report upon it, and if it is in every way satisfactory I will ask this Council to give a small grant to the asylum in recogni- -tion of the benefit they have conferred upon us by receiving these lunatics from our hands. There does not therefore appear to be any necessity to discuss the question of the lunatic asylum in so far as the Chinese are concerned. As regards the Europeans, the opinion expressed by the Medical Officer in charge of the Government Civil Hospital is that he does not think that the surroundings will very much affect the class of patient who there, because they are all imbeciles. He, however, informed me that the presence of a noisy maniac is likely to upset European patients, and he suggested an extension of the asylum. The hon. member representing the Chamber of Commerce, however, suggests two solutions to the question. One is that we should return the lunatics to their own country. That we endeavour of course to do as soon as possible. The other is that we should have a new site and a new asylum. It is very difficult to decide whether it would be possible to have a new site for the mere handful of Europeans wE have in the asylum as permanent inmates. It would involve great cost, and probably it would involve the engagement of an extra medical officer who would be solely in charge of that asylum. However as I have said the matter is receiving my attention and I will bear in mind what has been said by the hon. member in his speech today.

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