CO129-454 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1919 [4-6] — Page 455

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(c)-THE TUNG WA AND OTHER CHINESE HOSPITALS.

The Tang Wa Hospital, opened in 1872, is mainly supported by the voluntary subscriptions of Chinese, but receives an annual grant of $8,000 from the Government. Only Chinese are treated in this institution. Various other services not appertaining to a hospital are performed by the institution, such as the free burial of the poor, the repatriation of destitutes, and the organisation of charitable relief in emergencies. Chinese as well as European methods of treatment are employed in accordance with the wishes expressed by the patients or their friends. About half the number are now treated by Western methods. The hospital is managed by a committee of Chinese gentlemen annually elected, their appointment being submitted to the Governor for confirmation. It is under the supervision of a visiting physician, who is a menber of the Medical Department, whilst two Chinese house surgeons, trained in Western medicine, are members of the hospital staff. There are 323 beds in the buildings and 6,562 patients were accommodated during 1918.

The Tang Wa also maintain a branch hospital for small-pox cases (Chinese only) at Kennedy Town. It contains 58 beds and during 1918, 5 cases were treated.

The Alice Memorial and Affiliated Hospitals are managed and controlled by the missionaries resident in Hongkong, agents of the London Missionary Society, and consist of the Alice Memorial Hospital opened in 1887, the Nethersole Hospital opened in 1893, the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital opened in 1904, and the Ho Mia Ling Hospital opened in 1906. The number of in-patients in 1918 was 1,593 and the expenditure $23,128.76. The number of labours in the Maternity Hospital was 543. The Government makes a grant of $300 per annum to these Hospitals.

To avoid the complete seclusion from friends and relatives, which removal of Chinese plague patients to the Kennedy Town Infectious Diseases Hospital entailed, four District Plague Hospitals are now maintained, by the Chinese in various parts of the Colony. These hospitals are under the management of the Chineso Public Dispensaries Committee.

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The new Kwong Wa Hospital for Chinese in the Kowloon Peninsula was opened on the 9th October, 1911. It occupies site having an area of 3 acres and provides accommodation for 210 patients. The existing buildings contain 70 beds and 2,336 patients were accommodated during 1918. The collection of subscriptions, and the supervision of the building were undertaken by a special committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. The hospita! receives a grant of $8,500 per annum from the Government.

As will be noticed from the remarks made under the heading Education the Hongkong University is an Aided Institution.

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VII. INSTITUTIONS NOT SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT.

One of the most important institutions in the Colony not sup ported by the Government is the Matilda Hospital, which stands on a commanding site of nearly three acres at Mount Kellet in the Hill District. An account of this hospital will be found in the report for 1917.

Among institutions recognised and encouraged, but not to any considerable extent supported by Government may be mentioned the Pó Leung Kok, the Eyre Refuge, the City Hall, and the Chinese Public Dispensaries.

The Pó Leung Kuk is a Chinese Society founded in 1878 for the suppression of kidnapping and traffe in human beings. It was incorporated in 1898 and is presided over by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and not more than nine directors nominated by the Governor. The actual management is entrusted to a committee elected annually by the members of the Society. The Society's buildings have been declared a Refuge under the Women and Girls Protection Ordinance, and almost all women and girls detained by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs under that Ordinance are sent to the Pó Leung Kuk. During 1918 the number of persons admitted was 356 and at the close of the year 53 remained pader the care of the Society. The inmates are under the immediate charge of a Chinese matron, and instruction is given then by the matron and a Chinese teacher in elementary subjects and in needlework.

The Eyre Diocesan Refage is an institution, under mission auspices, founded for rescue work among the Chinese. It was boused in the Belilios Reformatory up to the outbreak of war, but the work is at present carried on at Kowloon City. A small grant is made by the Government,

T City Hall receives an annual grant of $1,200 from Govern- ment. It contains a theatre, some large rooms which are used for balls, meetings, concerts, etc., a museum in which are some very fair specimens, and a large reference and lending library, to which new volumes are added from time to time, as fands will allow. The building wasjerected in 1866-9 by subscription.

Small grants are also given to the Indian Convent, the French Convent, (both of which take in and tend abandoned or sick infants), the West Point Orphangs, the Seamen's Hospital, and other chari- table institutions,

The Chinese Public Dispensaries are institutions maintained in order to provide the Chinese with the services of doctors, whose certificates will be accepted by the Registrar of Deaths, and with the services of interpreters, who can assist the inmates of houses, where a case of infectious disease has occurred, Coolies are engaged and ambulances and dead vans provided in order to remove cases of in- fectious disease to the Infectious Diseases Hospital and dead bodies to the Mortuary. The Dispensaries receive sick infants and send

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