[ { "id": 212940, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nHON AUDITOR'S REPORT\n\nARTICLES:\n\nKarina Lam Wai-Ling - The Concern of a Nation's Face: Evidence in the Chinese Press Coverage of Sports. ............................ 1\n\nJanet George - The Lady Doctor's 'Warm Welcome': Dr Alice Sibree and the Early Years of Hong Kong's Maternity Service 1903-1909 .. 81\n\nKeith Stevens - Three Fukienese [Min-nan] Cults: Pao-sheng Ta-ti, Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih and San P'ing Tsu-shih ....................... 111\n\nGerald Choa - The Lowson Diary: A Record of the Early Phases of the Bubonic Plague Epidemic in Hong Kong 1894 ................ 129\n\nPatrick Hase - Eastern Peace: Sha Tau Kok Market in 1925 ............ 147\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nMary Pang - Reflexivity in Research and a Question of Culture ..... 203\n\nDan Waters - Tales of a Venerable Chinese Gentleman ................. 211\n\nDan Waters - Taking a Godson ............................................... 215\n\nGeoffrey Roper - Visits to the Swire Institute of Marine Science at Cape D'Aguilar 1993 and 1994 ............................................... 217\n\nBOOK REVIEWS ....................................................................... 221\n\nvii\n\nix\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213033, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "81\n\nTHE LADY DOCTOR'S “WARM WELCOME\": DR ALICE SIBREE AND THE EARLY YEARS OF HONG KONG'S MATERNITY SERVICE 1903-1909\n\nJANET GEORGE\n\nYesterday the first bricks were carried up to the site of the new midwifery Hosp Commend We are thankful indeed to have really made a beginning. We have hoped so long for this place and will have a very warm welcome for Dr Sibree (Mrs. Stevens, 24 April 1903).1\n\nMaternity services for local women highlight the relationship between colonial governments and people over a matter which is bound up with culture, ritual and privacy. It is of course a matter central to the family and its maintenance. In Hong Kong the development of the maternity service is particularly interesting, because of its paradoxical quality. That is, the traditional midwives, the 'wan p'o', were increasingly regulated and legally excluded from practice by 1936, even though other traditional medical practices remain untouched. Interesting also is the pattern of development, because the lead was taken by the London Missionary Society's (LMS) Alice Memorial Hospital through the support of the Chinese subscribers, although over many years the Colonial Surgeon, Dr. Ayres had urged the Tung Wah Hospital to extend its services in this direction. The outcome was the appointment in 1903 of Hong Kong's first Lady Doctor, Dr. Alice Sibree, to the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital (AMMH) to provide a maternity service for Chinese women and to train and supervise Chinese midwives employed by the Hong Kong Government. She completed only the first five-year contract, her resignation in 1909 following years of dissatisfaction with her role and conflict with Dr Gibson, the Medical Superintendent.\n\n2\n\nThis paper is focused on that conflict as it sheds light on the way women were perceived and their role organised in medical practice, the relationships between the Chinese elite and the LMS District Committee, and the effects of the professionalisation of medicine. The latter generated competition between the Alice and the Tung Wah Hospital for patients, as the Tung Wah gradually moved towards the incorporation of Western medicine. It also generated competition amongst doctors for appointment to the faculty of the emerging University of Hong Kong. It is argued that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213034, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "82\n\nthe breakdown in the relationship between Dr. Sibree and Dr. Gibson had significant effects on the extent, direction and control of the maternity service in the pre-World War II period.\n\nA Maternity Service for Chinese Women: the antecedents.\n\nThe view of Western doctors that traditional midwifery in Hong Kong was problematic is abundantly clear in the reports of government medical officers in the late nineteenth century. Horrific tales were told of the septic interventions of traditional midwives in difficult confinements, and reports of the cases of puerperal fever with high maternal mortality attended at the Civil Hospital. As well, there were concerns about the high infant death rates at the French and Italian Orphanages, the subject of an enquiry in 1887, and the practice of abandoning dead infants on hillsides, a public health threat, especially in years of plague. That is, the involvement of government was driven by both humanitarian and pragmatic concerns at a time when concern about infant health was high in England itself and the Colonial Office was demanding attention to the problem in Hong Kong.\n\nBy the turn of the century, there were already several developments that made attention to maternal health viable. On the one hand there were steps to the professionalisation of medicine, and on the other to the recognition of the need for specialised services for women. The practice of Western medicine was becoming more scientific and doctors were better trained. That training required hospital beds and patients. The Medical Registration Ordinance of 1884 that licensed Western doctors and the establishment of the Alice Memorial Hospital with the Hongkong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1887 acknowledged these changing needs. Nursing also was becoming professional, a vocation for ladies. The first English women nurses sent to the Civil Hospital in 1890 were well received as replacements for the untrained and uncivil wardsmasters, many of whom had been dismissed for theft and alcoholism.\n\nAt the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897 a hospital for women was supported by public subscription, resulting in the Victoria Hospital for Women and Children and a Training Institute for Nurses. Although this hospital was to be available to women of ‘all ranks, classes, creeds and races', its location in Barker Road made it inaccessible to poor women, and it is clear that the Training Institute was to produce midwives for European mothers. Morbidity amongst Chinese women led to the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213039, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "87\n\nProfession and Gender; controlling the lady doctor.\n\nIn March, 1903, Dr. Alice Sibree was appointed the Lady Doctor in charge of the new AMMH. Dr. Sibree was a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. 19 She had studied at the London School of Medicine for Women and had received special training in obstetrics and gynecology, particularly at the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital. 2 At the time of her appointment, she was 27 years old and engaged to be married to a Mr. Wright, who was working in Rangoon. Her father was an LMS missionary, stationed in Madagascar, and she appears to have been well connected with the LMS hierarchy in London, regularly, in her correspondence with the LMS Joint Foreign Secretary, Mr. Cousins, including regards to his wife. With her appointment, the Chinese subscribers handed over their money and building proceeded.\n\nThe appointment desired by the LMS Hong Kong District Committee was quite specific. The Lady Doctor must.\n\n1 have had a thorough training, specially in Midwifery and Diseases of Women\n\n2 have a good knowledge of Children's Diseases\n\n3 be a Lady willing to do visiting to attend cases in their own homes\n\n4 be a lady willing to teach and train native women in western methods of midwifery\n\n5 be a Lady Doctor to work exclusively among women and children\n\n6 be a Lady who is willing to act under the medical Superintendent 21\n\nThese terms clearly limited her sphere of practice and defined her subordinate relationship to Dr. Gibson. They were apparently unacceptable to London. In response to a query from Mr. Cousins, Dr. Gibson declared that he 'did not think of the Lady Doctor either as a subordinate or an assistant and had no other thought than that she should be a member of the DC. & have the full status of a missionary' 22. On exactly what terms Dr. Sibree agreed to the appointment is not indicated, nor is what she knew of Hong Kong and its cultural nuances. In the event, her relationship to Dr. Gibson and her sphere of practice became and remained sources of conflict during her five years' contract.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213042, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "90\n\nto them that I came from the new Hospital and that I should be glad to do anything for them if they would send for me Very few of them grasped it I am afraid Chinese husbands I suppose do not tell their wives much.\n\n35\n\nThe remedy for this situation was precluded by the organisation of medical practice at the time, the second issue. Professional ethics made it impossible for Dr. Sibree to increase her work by taking patients from the registered doctors in private practice in Hong Kong, 36 who in 1900 numbered fifteen. Outpatient work and home visits amongst poor patients were the territory of students of the Hong Kong College of Medicine, for whom the Alice was the training ground. While Dr. Sibree bemoaned the fact that she was becoming 'rusty' for lack of general medical work and that the work with women and children was inadequate, with no way clear to improve the situation, Dr. Gibson was adamant that she be given no share of the general medical work of the Alice or Nethersole Hospitals. Indeed, he dissented from the District Committee's support for her clinic at Sham Shui Po on the grounds of her health, itself an attitude produced by prevailing views about women:\n\nWith reference to the foregoing minute and Resolution Dr. Gibson desires it to be recorded that he takes no responsibility in the event of the work becoming too great for Dr Sibree as it is likely to do if she undertakes much general medical visitation.\n\n19\n\nThe Sham Shui Po clinic apparently did not eventuate. Why was Dr. Alice Sibree not acceptable for general medical in addition to maternity work? Before her arrival, Dr. Gibson had requested that a male medical missionary be sent as locum so that he could take furlough. It is not coincidental that this request was made shortly after the appointment of Dr. Sibree had been advised. Dr. Sibree, although a claimed equal, was not considered, and appears to have been excluded from consideration, as an acceptable replacement for Dr. Gibson. The reason becomes clear when the locum, Dr. Mitchell, explained why Dr. Sibree had been excluded from general medical work. The reason, simply stated, is that a woman doctor was unacceptable to the Chinese, be they patients, doctors or medical students:\n\nNeither of the House Surgeons would be willing to take orders from a lady doctor, nor would it be easy to find any Chinese medical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213044, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "92\n\never had for excessive caution to become reprehensible weakness in dealing with Dr. Gibson. He being now I presume in health will be held responsible in the same sense and degree that his colleagues are in the entire committee for his treatment of Dr. Sibree and for all his acts as a missionary.\" JB\n\nIf Dr. Gibson was 'difficult' with a senior male mission colleague, it is likely that his style led the young Dr. Sibree to avoid confrontation and try other measures to gain her objectives, complaining privately to Mr. Cousins, her pastoral support, and to friends in England, who then required answers from LMS on why she was so treated. In late 1904, she indicated that if, and only if, a replacement could be found, she would leave to be married.” In 1906, Mr. Cousins invited her to explore whether she could be released from her contract to take up a larger post in Hankow. Her engagement broken off in 1905, Dr. Sibree was free to move, but the appointment was virtually vetoed by the Chinese subscribers. Dr. Ts'o, whom she found ‘a most kindly little man, indicated that her leaving would be a personal affront, a loss of 'face', and damaging to the hospital, as the subscribers would feel that they had made donations for nothing. Dr. Ho Kai's 'sweetener' was to suggest that she should take over the female side of the Tung Wah Hospital. So Alice Sibree remained, continued her complaints to London, even though the work increased and she denied to her Hong Kong audience that a problem existed. The Minutes of the 1906 Annual Meeting of the District Committee record that 'Dr. Sibree was asked if she is now satisfied and was understood to answer that the opportunities of her special work have much improved'. This reply was elicited in response to a letter from the LMS Board. In 1908, she indicated that she would resign in February, 1909.\n\nIn early\n\nTo this point, the development of the AMMH and its outreach service was constrained by race and gender, as they affected the definition of the lady doctor's role, and exacerbated by the tensions in the relationship of Dr. Gibson and the LMS Hongkong District Committee. The influence of gender perceptions was far-reaching. Mission doctors were both medical people and missionaries, yet Dr. Gibson's role was restricted to hospital and clinic work, his inability to speak more than a little Cantonese precluding an evangelistic role with patients. However, Dr. Sibree was seen as more 'missionary' than ‘medical'. She was required to learn Cantonese and in her letters to England, she referred to her mission work, every afternoon visiting and teaching, and twice a week teaching hymns.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213046, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "94\n\non her medical work, the maternity area indeed grew during her incumbency. In 1909, there were 235 hospital and 1381 domiciliary births, babies delivered by the Chinese midwives trained by Dr. Sibree. 57 As well, she had established networks in the medical and Chinese community. She referred in 1906 to a holiday on the Peak, during which she assisted the acting PCMO, Dr. Clark, with work at the Victoria Hospital.58 Her fluency in Cantonese and regular visits to the 'small footed ladies' and poor Chinese women were supported by the Chinese subscribers, including Dr. Ts'o, with whom she appears to have had a friendly relationship. As well, she was acting, at the request of Mr. Brewin, the Registrar-General, as medical officer to the Po Leung Kuk, a Chinese institution for the care and protection of Chinese girls and women, originally those who had been brought forcibly to Hong Kong for prostitution.59 Her main tasks in relation to government were first, her role in training government midwives in the program set up at the AMMH in 1905, and secondly, in acting as supervisor of the government midwives. At the time of her resignation, then, Dr. Alice Sibree had a number of personal connections within Hong Kong, and a credibility with the government which was useful to the mission hospital.\n\nHer foreshadowed resignation served to bring into focus the underlying issues between the subscribers, the District Committee and the medical mission over control of the maternity service. Immediately the Chinese subscribers through Mr. Brewin requested a replacement under tightened conditions:60 The lady doctor was to:\n\n1. be 'on the regular staff' of the hospital and not in an 'exceptional position' as formerly\n\n2. undertake language training,\n\n3. make visits to Chinese women in their homes.\n\n4. act as Visiting Surgeon to the Po Leung Kuk and if necessary take charge of female patients under Western treatment at the Tung Wah Hospital,\n\nAn additional condition was the representation of Chinese subscribers on the management committee of the Hospital, specifically, by appointing the Chairman of the Finance Committee (Dr. Ho Kai) and one Chinese person, in order to have an equal voice with other members in the administration and the medical part of the work.\n\n62\n\n62\n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213047, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "95\n\nThis request set at loggerheads the subscribers, the District Committee and Dr. Gibson. Dr. Gibson took offence at the suggestion that Dr. Sibree was other than a full member of staff, claimed the initiative in the development of the maternity hospital and therefore considered the subscribers' demands unreasonable, as secondary supporters.\n\n63 Further, he refused to concede any transfer of the Nethersole Hospital to the control of the lady doctor, both because that work had been his sphere for ten years, and a loss of students would result. Since at this time discussions about a University for Hong Kong were in the air, a role for the Alice Hospital group in clinical teaching was more than ever important. At the same time, the difficulty of finding a lady doctor who would be prepared to work solely in maternity at low salary was recognised.\n\nThe District Committee vacillated. In October they proposed that a midwife, supervised by a male doctor, be appointed. Dr. Sibree, of course, had claimed all along that her work needed only a midwife's skills. However, the proposal was rejected, since a midwife could not legally perform an operation if that were necessary, nor could any other than a lady doctor fulfill the terms of supervision of the government midwives. Dr. Ho Kai urged speed, and this was conveyed to London by Mr. Pearce. Dr. Gibson, in contrast with his views in 1903, now strongly supported the appointment of a lady doctor, for pragmatic reasons. First, the maternity hospital had grown to a point where he could not resume the work involved. Secondly, he recognised that only a lady doctor could gain access to the 'richer classes of Chinese', whose private medical work was a source of hospital finance, and whose conversion to Christianity was desirable.\n\nBy this time, it seems that Dr. Sibree had lost the support of the District Committee. Her erstwhile supporter, Mr. Pearce, commented that she had not made a way through to do what she wanted: she would have found a way or made it and have kept it unquestioned. If Dr. Sibree had been a Dr. Tribe of Amoy, I do not blame her with no intention on her part save to do her duty faithfully. Life has not been what she hoped and expected, and her share or the lack of it in the medical mission work has been the subject of sharp controversy.\n\n47\n\nIn the same letter, he commented that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213049, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "97\n\npatient numbers. That she was unsuccessful indicates the ability of Dr. Gibson to control a discourse in which both medical and patriarchal interpretations converged.\n\nEarly in 1909, Dr. Sibree indicated that she would be prepared to return for at least a year. Her offer was acceptable to the Chinese subscribers, even though they had expressed a preference for an older woman. However, while the District Committee Annual Meeting Minutes record that Dr. Sibree had offered to stay for at least a year, she denied that. In September, 1909, she announced her decision not to return to the hospital at all. Poor Mr. Pearce! He had sided with Dr. Sibree against Dr. Gibson; he obviously felt that she had let him down, and now, as an independent lady doctor in Hong Kong, she was a threat to the mission hospital's work with women and children. He urged the LMS to make sure that their replacement was sent before Dr. Sibree returned to Hong Kong.\n\nDr. Sibree had previously indicated that she was likely to continue as supervisor of government midwives, as she had the support of the Medical Officer of Health, even though that position was seen as the province of the Alice. Subsequently, Dr. Gibson proposed a new hospital in Kowloon, with a women's ward which was to be the charge of the lady doctor. In January, 1910, the outpost was visited by a 'Deputation' of the LMS Directors from England, including Mr. Curne Martin, the Joint Foreign Secretary, their interest presumably in this matter as well as the other sources of tension, including the change in the role of the District Committee, discernible from correspondence.\n\nBy September, 1910, Dr. Sibree had returned to Hong Kong and in correspondence with Mr. Cousins referred again to the superintendency role which Dr. Gibson had taken in relation to her work, and complained of the lack of interest shown in her problem by the LMS, although this was denied by Mr. Pearce. She had begun a private practice with Chinese women and was again the supervisor of government midwives, despite the objections of Dr. Gibson, who could not take the position because of his lack of Cantonese. It is clear from her letter that she was confident that she had defeated Dr. Gibson in the competition for that position.\n\nHer replacement at the Alice, Dr. Eleanor Perkins, arrived in December 1910, nearly two years after Dr. Sibree's resignation. Dr. Gibson noted that 'she is interested in obstetrics and gynaecology' and promptly introduced her to Dr. Ho Kai and Mr. Brewin, Registrar-General, who\n\n78", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213050, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "98\n\nwere well pleased with her qualifications. From 1 January, 1911, Dr. Perkins took over the supervision of government midwives. One can only assume that, although the position had been more or less promised to Dr. Sibree by the government's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Gibson was able to gain the reinstatement of the AMMH. This was probably supported by the Legislative Councillor and Chairman of the Alice Hospitals, Dr. Ho Kai. Thus, the AMMH was again the provider, through its Lady Doctor, of the supervision of government midwives. That decision was clearly linked with the designation of the Medical Superintendent and Lady Doctor of the AMMH as members of the Midwives Board in the 'Midwives Ordinance', proclaimed in September, 1910.\n\nThe resistance of the District Committee and Dr. Gibson to the inclusion of extra Chinese subscribers on the maternity hospital's management subcommittee was overcome shortly after, when a proposal to add two subscribers was linked with a proposal to build a Training Institute for Nurses and Midwives. As well, the right of subscribers to nominate students for training was agreed. Finance was subsequently raised in the Chinese community for the project, which was opened in March, 1914.\n\nOutcomes and Implications of This Development Process.\n\nBetween 1903 and 1911, then, the first maternity hospital for Chinese women was built and training for Chinese midwives set up. That it happened at all was due to the convergence of interests of the LMS, the Chinese elite and the Hong Kong Government. The struggle for control in pursuit of sectional interests, Dr. Gibson versus the LMS District Committee, Dr. Gibson and the District Committee versus the Chinese subscribers, and the position of the LMS in relation to medical education, placed difficulties seen to be insuperable in the way of the Lady Doctor and the development of her service, as she was excluded from general medical work.\n\nIt is hard to reconcile the picture of Dr. Sibree as portrayed in the correspondence of her detractors as unable to adapt; lacking initiative; reluctant to state her case to the District Committee directly, rather going behind their backs to the LMS; and publicly denying any problem in her relationship with Dr. Gibson, with the strong figure she later appears. Dr. Sibree married Mr. C.C. Hickling, son of the Rev. C.H. Hickling, pastor\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213052, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "100 \n\n빠 \n\nin the schools of Hong Kong, although the strength of traditional attitudes is reflected in the failure to admit female students to the University of Hong Kong at its inception. Dr. Sibree's relationship with the LMS in Hong Kong was permanently soured, although in a letter to Dr. Thompson in 1910, she said: 'I assure you I felt leaving the LMS very much and am anxious to help the Society as I ever was',\" and she corresponded warmly with Miss Rayner, the Matron of the Alice, during the 1920s. Mr. Pearce advised against her being invited back to run the maternity work in 1922, claiming that she wherever possible undermined the mission's work.\" She is seen as the most significant figure in the development of maternity services and midwifery training in Hong Kong, yet the most successful part of her career appears to have followed her resignation from the LMS. \n\nThe dominant position of the Alice group of hospitals in the development of Western medicine for Chinese people, and in particular the provision of midwifery and training of Chinese midwives was itself undermined in later years, overtaken by secular progress in provision of maternity services, and the lack of continuity in its own service, as Dr. Gibson had feared. Dr. Perkins resigned in 1913 to marry Dr. Mitchell, returning to Hong Kong and the hospital in 1919, and a new Lady Doctor was not in place until Dr. Turner arrived in 1921, but she also resigned to marry in 1922, the year in which the Drs. Mitchell also took leave. A long-term woman doctor was only found in the arrival in 1925 of Dr. Annie Sydenham, who developed the maternity service until her retirement in 1954. Dr. Gibson served as Medical Superintendent from his arrival in 1896 to 1918, and again from 1924 to 1935, in all 33 years, during which the hospitals expanded, including their maternity work, \n\nIt is ironic that the much vaunted factor in preventing Dr. Sibree's satisfaction with her work, the fact that she was unacceptable to students and hospital doctors, backfired. With the professionalisation of medicine, the Hongkong College of Medicine was transferred to the University of Hong Kong in 1911. Dr. Gibson was proud of his role in lecturing to the College students and was concerned that the Alice should maintain a role in clinical teaching after the establishment of the University faculty. An Endowment Fund had been set up in 1907 to support the growth of the Hongkong College of Medicine in a separate building. At the opening of the University, Dr. Thomson, the former Medical Superintendent of the Alice, and Dr. Gibson were appointed life members of the Court. Subsequently, Dr. Gibson's teaching was removed. In 1913, he reported \n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213053, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "101\n\nthat he had been reinstated as a lecturer, but in 1916 he resigned that position, since the Chair of Surgery had been established, and could only be held with clinical rights at the Government Civil Hospital. Why Dr. Gibson was treated as Mr. Pearce said 'shabbily', is not known, although in Dr. Mitchell's eyes, there had been no necessary connection between the LMS and medical education, and he had warned against any expectation of a linkage.\" The effect, however, was to remove the students from the institution of the Alice, and with it, the main rationale justifying the exclusion of the lady doctor from general medical work. By this time, maternity work had grown and lack of work was no longer an issue. 94\n\nThe AMMH was most important in the establishment of Hong Kong's maternity service for several reasons: first, the resources set up were both hospital-based and domiciliary, and therefore set the parameters for subsequent development, which included hospitals, maternity clinics, and government midwives attending home births. Secondly, under the umbrella of the LMS, the place of Western medical practice amongst the Chinese people was strengthened, demand increasing in the post-World War I decades. Thirdly, female doctors acquired a primary role in service provision and thereby a career pathway for Chinese women as doctors and midwives was opened. That pathway was to extend to general nursing, although even until the 1930s at the Alice Hospital, male dressers, supervised by female European nurses, were needed to work in male wards. Fourthly, a service which was accessible to all classes of Chinese women was set in place. That is, poor women were looked after on the basis of need, whereas the wives of the wealthy Chinese subscribers were entitled to care in terms of the Lady Doctor's contract. The outcome was a service that was, as much by default from the power play between Dr. Gibson and Dr. Sibree as by intention, culturally appropriate to the Chinese community. That is, status differentials were recognised, and at the same time, the level of qualification seen as adequate for a public health-oriented service was selected, analogous to the level of training for the Chinese doctors.\n\nThe lack of continuity in the service left a gap which, with greater recognition of need, was filled by secular agencies, as the Chinese Public Dispensaries Committee set up a maternity home in Wanchai in 1919, run by Dr. Alice (Sibree) Hickling, followed by the Tsan Yuk Hospital in 1922. The Tung Wah and Kwong Wah Hospitals improved their maternity service, and domiciliary care was the province of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213054, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "102\n\ngovernment midwives. The Civil Hospital improved its standards as it was required to provide the clinical training facilities for the University. The Chinese subscribers, who had so generously supported the development of the LMS hospitals, gained and strengthened their power on its committees, but were involved also in these secular developments. The death of Dr. Ho Kai in 1914 coincided with staff shortages and restricted finance for the hospital, as war clouds gathered, making it harder to regain the lead. On the resignation of Dr. Sibree, the impetus for leadership and innovation was lost by the AMMH, although demand grew. It was not restored until the arrival in 1925 of Dr. Annie Sydenham, who, as a long term incumbent, was in a position to introduce preventive and outreach programmes. By this time, the initiative and future form of the service had passed into secular hands, those of the Chinese Public Dispensaries and the Hong Kong Government.\n\nNOTES\n\n1LMS Eastern, South China Box 15, 1903, No 274 Mrs Stevens, (Matron of the Alice Memorial Hospital) to Mr Cousins, 24 April 1903\n\n2Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1884 29/84, Par 39-42 Dr Ayres' opinion could be seen as either to support the policy of separation of medical services for the Chinese, or, by suggesting the attendance of Western doctors, to be promoting increased influence over the Tung Wah Hospital. At the same time, the Civil Hospital was a general hospital, with no separate maternity area, and its role was to provide primarily for the non-Chinese community. The relationship between the Tung Wah Hospital and the Hong Kong Government is analysed in Elizabeth Sinn, Power and Charity: The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989)\n\n3Daily Press, 27 April, 1897\n\n4Mrs Steven's Report 1891-99\n\n5LMS South China Box 15, 1901 No 263 Dr Gibson to Mr Cousins, 1 February, 1901\n\n6Mrs Steven's Report 1901 Alice Hospital Archives Copy\n\n7May to Lyttelton, 21 July, 1904, #291 CO129/323\n\n8LMS Box 12, 1892 No 212 Report of the Annual Meeting of the Finance Committee, enclosed with a letter from Dr. Burton, 19 April, 1893\n\n9LMS 1908 Box 17, 1908 Memorandum from Dr Gibson to LMS Directors, 26 March, 1908", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213057, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "49\n\n50\n\nLMS Box 16, 1904-5 No 284 Dr. Sibree to Mr Cousins, 20 December, 1904\n\nLMS Box 16, 1906-07 No 295 Dr Sibree to Mr. Cousins, 9 October, 1906\n\n105\n\n51\n\nLMS Box 17, 1907 No 297 Minutes of the HKDC Annual Meeting 1906, 24-25 January, 1907\n\n52 LMS Box 16, 1906 No 294 Dr Sibree to Mr Cousins, 27 July, 1906\n\nLMS Box 16, 1905-06 No 290 Dr Mitchell to Mr Cousins, 30 December, 1905, noting that he had not had time for language study, and requesting that the Directors forgo the deduction of 10 per cent from his salary\n\n54 LMS Box 16, 1906 No 294 Mr. Pearce to Rev G Cousins, 12 July, 1906\n\n55 Miss Rayner noted that midwifery trainees preferred to extend their practice to general nursing, resulting in changes to the proportions of each in the curriculum, reflecting their perception also of midwifery as a narrow field LMS Annual Reports. South China, Box 5, 1917-18 No 539 Miss Rayner's Report, 1917\n\n50\n\nIndeed, it was Dr. Gibson who insisted that the probationary period of Dr Annie Sydenham be extended by one year, in view of her episodes of illness in her first year in Hong Kong See LMS Box 25, 1928 No 423, Minutes of the South China District Committee, January, 1928, S 8054, LMS Box 25, 1928-29 No 428 Dr Gibson to Rev Phillips, 16 January, 1928\n\n57\n\nPamela Leung, ‘A History of the Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital', in Alice Ho Miu Ling Hospital Annual Report 1988-89 (n.d. np). P 80\n\n58 LMS Box 16, 1906-07 No 295 Dr. Sibree to Mr Cousins, 9 October, 1906\n\n59 HJ Lethbridge, “The Evolution of a Chinese Voluntary Association: the Po Leung Kuk', in lus Hong Kong. Stability and Change (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), Pp 71-103\n\n60\n\nThe Chinese guarantors suggested a lady doctor in middle life - 'about forty\" - as culturally appropriate to attend Chinese women Dr Sibree, born in 1876, was now 32 years old There is no evidence to suggest that the subscribers were dissatisfied with Dr Sibree's work On the contrary, Mr Pearce thanked them for their 'generous and steadfast support' of her in the obstetric service See LMS Box 17, 1908 Mr Pearce to Dr Ho Kar, 19 September, 1908, Mr Pearce to Rev Cousins, 9 October, 1908\n\n61 Dr Ho Kat was Chairman of the Finance Committee 1887-1912 See Paterson, op.cit, Appendix 5, p1\n\n62 LMS Box 17, 1908 Mr Brewin to Mr Pearce, 14 January, 1908. It is assumed that this correspondence reflects the views at the Chinese subscribers on learning that Dr. Sibree", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213058, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "106\n\nwas to resign, rather than a submission by which her services would not be renewed The first record of her intention to resign comes from the Minutes of the DC Annual Meeting of 1907, held 19-20 March, 1908, at which, after clarifying Dr Sibree's plans for departing Hong Kong, Mr. Brewin's correspondence was discussed. See LMS Box 17, 1908 Minutes enclosed in Mr Pearce to Mr Cousins 23 March, 1908\n\nLMS Box 17, 1908 Memorandum to the Directors re communication, Chinese Gentlemen per Hon A.W Brewin, Dr Gibson to Mr. Cousins, 26 March, 1908\n\n64 LMS Box 17, 1908 Mr. Pearce to Rev G Cousins, 9 October, 1908\n\n6 See LMS Box 18, 1909 No 311 Dr Gibson to Mr. Sousins, 6 February, 1909, LMS Box 18, 1910 No 319 Dr Mitchell to Rev G Currie Martin, I September, 1910\n\n66 Dr Ethel Tribe was a medical missionary in China, in Amoy from 1895-1909 and at the Lester Hospital, Shanghai, from 1909-1914 She is recorded as having enlarged the scope of work with women and children at the Lester Hospital. See Goodall, op cit, p 193\n\n67\n\nLMS Box 17, 1908 Mr Pearce to Rev Cousins, 28 April, 1908 Personal and confidential\n\n68 Goodall, op cit, p 11\n\n69 Goodall, op cit., pp 215, 550\n\n70\n\nLMS Box 17, 1908 Attachment to Minutes included with letter from Mr Pearce to Rev Cousins, 16 October, 1908\n\n7 LMS Box 18, 1909 No 310 Miss H. Davies to Mr Cousins, 30 January, 1909\n\n72 LMS Box 17, 1908 16 October, 1908, Mr Pearce to Rev Cousins, Minutes of Hong Kong District Committee Dr Mitchell was appointed acting medical superintendent of the Alice during Dr. Gibson's furlough in 1905-6. With his marriage to a Canadian lady doctor, he was sent to Poklo, to establish the medical mission there, during which time his wife died Given the marginality of the Poklo post, and the need for support in Hong Kong after Dr Sibree's resignation, Dr Mitchell returned to Hong Kong at the end of 1909 During his furlough in 1913, he married Dr Perkins, and, delayed by the war, they returned to Hong Kong in 1919, when he took up the post of medical superintendent until his resignation because of ill-health in 1924. Given his dissatisfaction with the LMS about finding him a medical mission post, it is possible that he saw his interests as in Hong Kong, thus influencing his support for Dr Gibson While Dr Sibree saw him as powerless to act in her interests during Dr Gibson's furlough in 1905-6, it is more probable that he did not wish to jeopardise his own position\n\n73 Goodall (op cit., p.12) refers to the prejudice held by some missionary men against women missionaries, who they claimed were there only for the one hundred pounds per annum stipend See also N Eraser, Unruly Practices Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989), pp 164-5", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213059, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "107\n\n74 See LMS Box 18, 1909 No 311 Minutes of the HKDC Annual Meeting, 2-3 February, 1909, Box 18, 1909 No 314 Minutes of the HKDC Meeting, 22 June, 1909, and LMS Box 18, 1909 No 315 Mi Pearce to Rev G Currie Martin, Joint Foreign Secretary It is not clear why Dr Sibree did not resume her position. An amount of $1600 paid to her as Supervisor of Government Midwives was in dispute as to whether it should be deducted from the guarantors' payment at $10,000 (LMS Box 18, 1909 No 313 Mi Wells to Mr Cousins, 27 May, 1909), as well, the guarantors had declined to pay Dr. Sibree's rent (LMS Box 18, 1909 No 312. Mi Wells to Mr Cousins, 17 March, 1909) Thus, paradoxically, material matters may have been the last straw'\n\n75 LMS Box 18, 1909 No 315 Personal letter from Mr Pearce to Mi Currie Martin, 13 September, 1909\n\n76 The final evidence produced by Dr Sibree was the wording of Clause 4 of the 1910 Midwives Ordinance, which legislated his position that is, the Midwives Board was to comprise the Medical Superintendent of the Alice Memorial Hospital and the Lady Doctor attached to it, (plus three others). This indicates that the lady doctor was not the medical superintendent of the hospital of which she had charge See endnote 79\n\n77 LMS Box 18, 1910 No. 319. Dr Sibree to Dr. Thompson, 26 September, 1910\n\n78 LMS Box 18A, 1911 No 320 Dr Gibson to Mr. Martin, 17 December, 1910\n\n79 ibid, Dr. Gibson to Mr Martin. 7 December, 1910\n\n80 The agreement between the Hong Kong Government and the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital, 31 December, 1904, stated that, on graduation, the midwives trained at the AMMH would be at the disposal of Government for three years, salaried and providing free services to Chinese women in labour under the supervision of the Lady Doctor The Lady Doctor, at that time the only one, was later taken to refer to the AMMH lady doctor Quoted in LMS Box 17, 1908 'Memorandum to Hongkong DC' from Dr. Gibson, attached to Mr. Pearce to Mr Cousins, 17 August, 1908\n\nWith the introduction of the 'Midwives Ordinance' in 1910, the composition of the Midwives Board was specified as 'The Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Superintendent of the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital and the Lady Doctor attached to the same', plus three persons appointed by the Governor for a three-year term See An Ordinance to secure the better training of Midwives and to regulate their practice' No 22 of 1910, clause 4. Hongkong Government Gazette, September 2, 1910, p 395\n\n81 LMS Box 18A, 1911 No 323 Mr Clayson to Rev Currie Martin, 25 February, 1911\n\n82 The Hong Kong Daily Press, 24 September, 1928\n\n83 Blue Books 1918, 1926 Her title was in 1928 changed to 'Assistant Visiting Medical Officer to Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries See Blue Book, 1928\n\n84. The China Mail, 22 September, 1928, The Hong Kong Daily Press, 24 September, 1928", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 } ]