Old Hong Kong-3 — Page 146

NAVAL YARD (Contd.)

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ship up to the time of the War) and Merlin, would also be welcomed.

Reference was made yesterday to the gradual development of the Peak as a residential district, and to the early military sanatorium there. The local naval authorities also established sanatoria on the Peak about the same time, and the naval records give some interesting details of the vicissitudes which their early health resorts had to contend against. As with the Army the Navy scheme met with criticism and discourgement.

Reference is made in the local records, in a letter dated June 1, 1876, to the proposal for a Naval Sanatorium at the Gap leading to Victoria Peak, which was suggested as a great boon to Naval officers at Hong Kong during the summer months. A letter dated June 24, 1876, from the Governor to Commodore Watson, states that the Colonial Government had much pleasure in acceding to the application for a grant of land on the Peak on which to build a Naval Sanatorium. Apparently it did not materialise, however, until late in the Eighties.

Meanwhile, attention was also turned to Mount Gough. The first mention of a sanatorium, which was to be for naval seamen, at Mount Gough, was made in August 1886, in a letter addressed to the Commodore, which refers to the draft design of a proposed sanatorium "in accordance with the Commodore's memo of July, 1886". It is mentioned that the cost of the building was to be about £1,300.

A letter dated September 8, 1886, refers also to proposed quarters for one surgeon and seven Naval officers at Mount

Gough, the estimated cost of which would be £1,400.

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Om May 10, 1889, a memorandum from the Commander-in-chief

was issued referring to the sanatorium at Victoria Gap, and we find the place definitely condemned. It stated that he approved of the sanatorium being opened for trial, but:

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"I regret to think, however, that it cannot be a success. It is in no respect a hospital, and I do not think there are sufficient means of forcing restraint on the convalescents. ground attached to the building is too small to a mit even the amount of fencing necessary for safety, and being in the immidiate neighbourhood of the tramway station (opened the previous year) the occipants will have easy access to the grog shops etc. etc. of Victoria. Should my anticipations prove well-founded, will make a further report to their Lordships and accompany it with suggestions for the utilisation of the building."

A letter from the Admiralty dated May 13, 1890, to Vice- Admiral Sir Nowell Salmon, Commander-in-Chief, states that the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty approved of the retention of the Peak sanatorium at Hong Kong. This appears to have been the sanatorium for seamen and marines at Victoria Gap.

The one proposed at Mount Gough appears to have developed into the Magazine Gap sanatorium which was later abaon ioned, and was demilished by the big typhoon in 1823.

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We might include here a note on Admiral Shadwell, the pioneer it would seem, of the shore hospital scheme in Hong Kong. (See 9-10-33). There is a reference in an Admiralty circular daved June 25, 1888, to the ́establishing of a prize "in memory of the late Admiral Sir Charles Shalwell, K.C.B." to be known as the Shadwell Testimonial. The first award was to be made during