CO129-454 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1919 [4-6] — Page 349

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No

bor 139.

My Lord,

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GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONGKONG. 30th. April, 1919.

I have the honour to recommend for Your

Lordship's favourable consideration an application by the Chinese Public Dispensaries Committee for the grant of a site on which to erect and maintain a Maternity Hospital.

The Chinese Public Dispensaries organisa-

2.

-tion which is supported entirely by voluntary subscriptions except for a Government subsidy of $2,000 per annum and is

managed by a committee of representative Chinese under the Chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, was started

in 1905 to assist in establishing confidence in the Public

Health measures the Government of that time was obliged to adopt. One of the means by which it was hoped to establish this confidence was the opening of out-patient Dispensaries throughout the Colony, in charge of qualified Chinese dealing

only with Western methods, as it was thought that women and children would be prepared to go to such institutions, evan

where their prejudice against a Government Hospital was in-

-superable. The results have been uniformly satisfactory,

and at the beginning of this year the Committee opened a

Maternity Hospital as a further step in the same direction.

This Hospital is a small one in premises already available,

and was considered in the nature of an experiment. It has

proved popular and successful, the cases dealt with in the

HE RIGHT HONOURABLE

VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.,

first

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