CO129-389 - Governor Sir Lugard Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1912 [3-4] — Page 445

C.O.

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42.286974/10

SIR,

3FCB HONGCose, April 231, 1912.

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It is more than probable that Dr. J. M. Atkinson, Principal Civil Medical Officer of this Colony, who is at present in England on vacation leave, will decide to retire from the public service in July and as I rank next in seniority among the whole time medical staff of the Colony, I venture to ask that my name may be cons sidered when the question of filling the vacancy comes before you for decision.

I was appointed an officer of the Medical Department of Hongkong in June 1895 and on my arrival in the Colony was allotted the duties of Medical Officer of Health with a seat on the Sanitary Board. This substantive appointment I have held until the present time, and I attained the maximum salary of my rank in 1901. I may perhaps be permitted to add that there is no other Assistant Head of a Department in this Colony who can clain to have held the same appointment for seventeen years and to have received no increase of pay for the past eleven years,

Dr. Atkinson has, for some few years past, found it convenient to personally undertake the medical charge of a small Government Hospital at the Peak, which is maintained for women and children and to which cases of midwifery are admitted, and it might be suggested that as I have had no practical experience of midwifery cases for some years past I should not expect to succeed. Dr. Atkinson. I venture to submit, however, that there is no necessity whatever for the Principal Civil Medical Officer to undertake this particular duty, which could very well be allotted to a junior officer in the Department. The duties which are performed by the officers of the medical staff in Hongkong comprise inter alia the treatment of cases in the Infectious Diseases Hospitals, the medical charge of prisoners in the Gaol, the daily medical inspection of the (Chinese) Tang Wah Hospital and the medical treatment of subordinate Government servants who are not sufficiently ill to be admitted to Hospital, and there would therefore be no difficulty whatever in so arranging these various duties as to relieve the Principal Civil Medical Officer of the necessity for attending cases of confinement-cases which most officers of that rank would naturally leave to younger men-and allot to him such of the other duties above named as the exigencies of the service may dictate.

On the other hand the Principal Civil Medical Officer is required to administer the medical department in an efficient and economical manner, and to advise the Government on those larger sanitary and medical questions which involve additional expenditure or necessitate changes in administrative procedure or in legislation, and my experience of seventeen years as Melical Offier of Health of this Colony has afforded me a most thoroughly practical training in administrative work and in the methods of prevention of disease in a tropical climate, a subject which has of late years become of even greater importance than ethods of treatment. Some eighteen months ago His Excellency Sir Henry May, K.C.M.G., strongly recommended me to you, Sir, for the appointment of Principal Civil Medical Officer of the Colony of Mauritius and in January 1911 Ilis Excellency Sir Frederick Lugard, G.C.M.G., did me the honour, I believe, to confirm that recommendation when writing to point out that I could not accept the salary then offered by that Colony, as it was less than that of my appointment in Hongkong.

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