[ { "id": 207303, "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-1975", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n63\n\nfaced with our epidemic of great magnitude. By July, for example, there had been 2442 deaths. Hospitals were quickly established on board the \"Hygeia\", at Kennedy Town Police Station and at the Kennedy Town glass works. The first two hospitals were run by European staff whilst the third was manned by Chinese personnel of the Tung Wah hospital. Official despatches record that \"it was deemed advisable to give the Chinese doctors a free hand at first. In any case, it is difficult to persuade the Chinese to report cases of sickness and their foolish and violent prejudice against Western medical men is quite sufficient to induce them, as they certainly did in the first fortnight or three weeks of the existence of the plague, not only to secrete their sick but often to desert their plague-stricken friends and relations after death.\"*\n\nA house-to-house inspection was carried out by personnel of the garrison and those houses in which plague had occurred were cleansed and disinfected. This action gave rise to numerous complaints from the Chinese community for it was rumoured that the foreigners had sinister and unspeakable desires on the women and children. Indeed, so inflamed did feelings become that a deputation of Chinese petitioned the Governor, Sir William Robinson, to order the cleansing operations to be stopped. However, Sir William made it clear in no uncertain terms that the government was determined to take strong measures. Subsequently, an anti-government poster campaign was launched and this spread to Canton where further rumours were started to the effect that English doctors were accused of cutting open pregnant women and scooping out the eyes of children to make medicines for the treatment of plague-stricken patients.\n\nThe prompt answer of the governor in Hong Kong was to station the gunboat \"Tweed\" off Tai Ping Shan and to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of persons distributing malicious posters. Additionally, the Chinese Viceroy in Canton was requested to issue proclamations denying the atrocity stories. However, these were not made with any great degree of vigour and feelings in Canton continued to run high to the extent that two women missionary doctors were set upon by a mob.\n\n* \"Further Correspondence Relative to the Outbreak of Bubonic Plague at Hong Kong between Sir William Robinson to the Marquess of Ripon 1894\", p. 2 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1903, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211035, "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-1987", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "71\n\n1901 (see below).\n\n36\n\nBrewin, who was promoted to Registrar General in 1901, had also served briefly, from 1897 to 1901, as Inspector of Schools in succession to E.J. Eitel. His endorsement was, therefore, particularly valuable. He had been appointed, together with his successor as Inspector of Schools, E.A. Irving, and the Chinese member of the Legislative Council, Ho Kai, to the 1901-1902 Education Committee, the report of which contains blatant calls for the separate educational treatment of the different races and a clear recommendation, compatible with the extremes of colonialistic paternalism, that, as far as Chinese education was concerned, the Government should concentrate its efforts and finances on the education, in English, of the few who could be regarded as potential leaders. Interestingly, the Secretary of State for the Colonies at this time, Joseph Chamberlain, totally rejected this recommendation (Chamberlain to Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Hong Kong, 12th September, 1902, in CO129/311, p. 481).\n\n\"For certain individuals, this explanation is something of a euphemism since the “medical and sanitary precautions\" involved burning down their homes.\n\nThe Plague first broke out in Hong Kong in the Spring of 1894. The death rate for the first five or six months was over 2,500, and, though, it was the Chinese population which was most affected, the Europeans were not untouched. Lady Robinson, the wife of the Governor of Hong Kong, was, for example, a victim. Dr. E.J. Eitel, the Inspector of Schools, provided details of the rumours circulating among the less educated Chinese, and their effects, in a memorandum to the Colonial Secretary on 22nd May 1894. Eitel wrote to report and explain \"the panic which has suddenly decimated the attendance in the local Chinese Schools\" and noted that the rumours began to spread in districts affected by the Plague on Sunday, 20th May and reached other districts the next day. The principal rumours were (a) that \"the Government intended to select a few young Children from each School to subject them to a surgical incision of the liver in order to obtain bile, this being the only known remedy for curing the plague”; and, (b) that \"every School would be visited by officers who would examine every child and send to the \"Hygeia\" anyone having the least boil or pimple on its body\". Eitel speculated about the origin of the panic, attributing it to \"the malicious distortion of the native medical fraternity\" and concluded: “I do not think anything very effectual can be done to remove the suggestions of native malice to native ignorance and suspiciousness. Distrust of the Government is still rampant among the lower classes of Chinese. Education will remove it in time. (Memorandum No. 38 of 22nd May, 1894, by Dr. E.J. Eitel, Inspector of Schools; in CO129/263, p. 190-193). 39 In Arnold Wright (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and the Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources (London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908), p. 182, for example, Mok Tso Chun, “a native of the Heungshan district\" and formerly one of the directors of the Tung Wah Hospital, is described as the Chief Compradore of Butterfield and Swire. In the Anglo-Chinese Commercial Directory of circa 1915 (Chief Editor, Jan George Chance), a Mok Jao Chuen, clearly the same person as Mok Tso Chun, appears as Compradore for Butterfield and Swire, while a Choi Kung Po and a Mok Kon Sang appear as Assistant Compradores. Mok Man Cheung acted as witness to the will of Mok Tso [or Jao] Chun and the will, itself, makes it clear that Mok Kon Sang was Mok Tso Chun's eldest son. It was certainly not unusual for Compradores at this time to find positions for younger relatives.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213084, "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": 152, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "133\n\nsecretary of the Sanitary Board. He turned out to be wrong.\n\nMay 8th\n\nI am diagnosed A. Hung as suffering from plague and isolated him\n\nThe identity of A. Hung was revealed in the Report to the Governor. He was a ward boy in presumably the Government Civil Hospital. He was admitted during Lowson's absence in Canton with the diagnosis of remittent fever but having seen him Lowson diagnosed it as plague. This then was the first case he saw in the Hong Kong Epidemic. Action had now to be taken as described in the following entry:\n\nMay 10th\n\nOrder from HE OAG for report on plague in Canton in morning Order an four Taler to visit Tung Wah where I found about 20 cases of bubonic plague Visited Tung Wah again with Ayres at 2:30 pm Sanitary Board at 4:00 pm Long Meeting Gave order to have Hygeia over in morning and prepare for epidemic Government proclaimed Colony suffering from plague\n\nThe Governor then was Sir William Robinson. He must have been away and the person acting for him, known as the Officer Administrating the Government, could be the General Officer Commanding. The Hygeia was a hospital ship moored in the harbour for the isolation of patients suffering from infectious diseases such as small-pox and cholera. The Tung Wah was the same hospital which still stands on its original site, on Po Yan Street in Sai Ying Pun District.\n\nWe will now follow the situation as it developed from the entries of the next few days:\n\nMay 11th\n\nHygeia over Sanitary Board in pm passing bye-laws 13 deaths from plague\n\nMay 12th\n\nSome difficulty with moving patients but got them all over before 4 pm Saw all settled Rabbit and Guinea pig injected from A Hung 26 deaths reported from plague", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213085, "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": 153, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "134\n\nIt is interesting that Lowson had taken such a step. It showed that he was quite scientific-minded. In his Report to the Governor, he described some changes he saw in the red and white cells under the microscope. However, he wrote that 'the question as to whether one will find a bacterial or other cause for the pathological changes will be in abeyance for sometime'. Perhaps if he had time to pursue the study he might well have found the bacillus?\n\nMay 13th\n\nAnother heavy day. Hot sun. Cases pouring in and outlook appalling. At night A Hung died. 25 deaths from plague, 12 on Hygeia.\n\nMay 14th\n\n32 deaths on Hygeia. Opened Kennedy Town Hospital.\n\nAs more beds were needed the local police station in Kennedy Town was evacuated and converted into a hospital.\n\nMay 15th\n\nOut of bed to Executive Council meeting. Guinea pig died in morning. 27 deaths. 12 on Hygiea. 5 in Kennedy Town hospital.\n\nMay 16th\n\n24 deaths. 9 Hygeia. 12 Kennedy Town Hospital. In hospital 47.\n\nNo more figures appeared after this entry. On May 24th another hospital was established in a glass-works factory also in Kennedy Town district. On this day's entry, there was the following annotation:\n\nMay 24th\n\nThe Glass-work hospital was filled up immediately and the scene there baffled description. When think of it now (1933) I wonder how anyone can come out alive.\n\nThe truth of the matter was that the Chinese did not want to be admitted into the Hygeia because it was under \"foreign control,\" meaning they would have to be treated by expatriate doctors with western medicine. They wanted another hospital like the Tung Wah where all patients, including plague cases, were treated by herbal medicine by Chinese physicians. This was opposed by the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213089, "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": 157, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "138\n\nin the diary there were comments and criticisms of people Lowson had to deal with during the Epidemic, all being his superiors in the Government service. I will now read out the relevant entries in chronological order, with added comments, and you will hear another story which has not been told before.\n\nMay 25th\n\nLockhart angry because he could not get himself in the limelight He was of no assistance with the Chinese who distrusted him as the British distrusted him He was simply pushed aside by Francis and the rest His spite therefore landed on Ayres and me\n\nLockhart was J.H. (later Sir James) Stewart Lockhart who was Registrar General and acting Colonial Secretary at the time, also chairman of the Sanitary Board. Francis was J.J. Francis a Queen's Counsel, who was one of the five non-official members and chairman of the Permanent Committee.\n\nMay 26th\n\nSaw Governor anent Lockhart's idiotic interference\n\nMay 29th\n\nFrancis would listen to nobody Never went to infected areas therefore did not know the difficulties and what was happening Later on he went to some hospitals where there was no danger\n\nJune 30th\n\nBoth above (Aoyama and Ishiyumi) bad Brought up Kitasato and crowd here to stay They had been fired out of the hotel so I took them all up to house and got them in a matshed Lockhart afterwards tried to curry favour by saying that he had this done but he knew nothing about it for a week and actually prepared to censure me for doing it\n\nThis needs explaining. Kitasato and his two assistants were staying at the Hong Kong Hotel. Aoyama and Ishiyumi took ill on the 28th and were removed to the Hygeia. Lowson put Kitasato up in a matshed near his house. Apparently he did not ask for Lockhart's permission and Lockhart was not pleased, but one wonders why he should for such an obvious decision and move under the circumstances.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213090, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "139\n\nJuly 2nd\n\nLockhart and Governor now making themselves obnoxious bloody fools They are now walking into the mite properly\n\nJuly 4\n\nSaw Governor about suggested plans, gave him a lecture as to what to do and who to take advice from\n\nJuly 6th\n\nGovernor and ADC round hospitals Governor said to Chater (Sir Paul Chater, the well-known Hong Kong personality) in Club (Hong Kong Club) before me \"We expect to go to Laichikok tomorrow\" This was a boast that he was actually thinking about running into some danger at last\n\nJuly 7th\n\nLockhart, Cantlie and Hartigan at Laichikok, (2) did not visit graveyards at all Castle, II and L to Hygeia Never visited graves\n\nJuly 8th\n\nPreston and Westcott to Laichukok, no graves visited\n\nCantlie was Dr. (later Sir James) Cantlie, dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine. He and Dr. William Hartigan were asked to visit Laichikok Hospital and report to the Governor. Also asked were two army medical officers, Surgeon Colonel A.F. Preston and Surgeon Captain S. Westcott. Lowson paid much attention to the way the plague victims were buried. He insisted that the graves should be dug down to a certain depth so that the coffins could be properly covered up with soil and lime and not exposed. A reporter from the Hong Kong Weekly Press described what he saw in Laichikok before the two visits as follows: 'The average depth of the graves was not more than nine inches. In some cases, not a few, the coffin was actually above the level of the ground and merely had a little mound of loose earth above them. Lowson's specifications had therefore not been properly carried out. In spite of Lowson's question mark, Cantlie and Hartigan did visit the graveyard. They wrote: 'We saw eight graves ready for use; they were in a row about 2 ft. apart and quite 6-1/2 ft deep.' They added that the official accompanying them volunteered the information that for the first graves the depth was insufficient because burial had to be done in a hurry. Preston and Westcott wrote that they did", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 } ]