[ { "id": 205147, "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-1966", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "98\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\n43 Reichelt quotes a warning by the late Ming monk, Hsi-ming, against \"being deceived into joining the Catholic church or some other outside sect,” and states that it was often reprinted (Truth and Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, Shanghai, 1927, pp. 157-158).\n\n44 It was in 1920 that Reichelt first proposed an \"institute for special work among the Buddhists.\" He wanted to make contact with monks whose hearts were filled with bitterness towards Christianity because some Christians were \"so fatally lacking in a sympathetic and gentle attitude towards others.\" It was to be \"a half-way house\" with many of the features of a Buddhist monastery, including a wandering monks' hall, a meditation hall, a bell tower, a crematorium, and a hall for the aged. See K. L. Reichelt, \"Special Work among Chinese Buddhists\" Chinese Recorder 51.7 (July 1920), 491-497. When it finally went into operation, under the name of the \"Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" in the autumn of 1922, it had only a \"very small, semi-foreign house.\" After a year and a half, it moved to somewhat larger quarters which included a dining room, where vegetarian meals were served, and the all-important \"pilgrims hall\" where monks were allowed to put up for three days (as they would be at a Buddhist temple) and stay longer if they were interested in serious study. The layout was \"just as in monasteries with two long platforms where they can spread their bedding, and, above them, shelves where they can place their things. Between the two platforms, there is an altar with an incense burner and two candlesticks and above all an impressive crucifix.\" Even more significant was the arrangement of the chapel, to which they were summoned for worship twice a day (as they would be in a monastery) by \"a Chinese bell with deep tones.\" The altar was of red lacquer \"in a true Chinese style,\" adorned with gilt designs that included the following: \"the lotus lily symbolizing the purity, the fire, and the water of the cleansing spirit” (but also, of course, symbolizing the Buddha Amitabha and his Pure Land), \"the swastika of peace and cosmic union\" (but also one of the Buddha's sacred marks and a general symbol for Buddhism), and the cross over a lotus, which was the Mission's emblem.\n\nJust as in a Chinese temple, plaques with parallel inscriptions were hung on the walls. One bore a quotation from the Gospel according to St. John: \"The true light that enlightens every man has come into the world.\" The other legend was more Buddhist in flavour than Christian: \"[Join in] the great vow compassionately to help people across to the other shore\" (ta-yüan tz'u-hang).\n\nThese efforts to make Buddhist monks feel at home attracted a large number of them as visitors (about a thousand annually) but in the first four and a half years of operation, only seventeen male Chinese were converted and baptized. See Notto Normann Thelle \"The Christian Mission to the Buddhists,\" Chinese Recorder (September 1927), 571-575. A photograph of four of the Buddhist and Taoist novices, whom Thelle says were enrolled in the boys' school opened by the Mission, appears in the Chinese Recorder 54.11 (November 1923), facing p. 671. When the permanent headquarters of the Mission were constructed at Tao-fung Shan in the New Territories of Hong Kong during the 1930s, the approximation of a Buddhist monastery became almost as close as Dr. Reichelt had originally envisaged it. Some missionaries were afraid that he was being too broad-minded in his use of Buddhist motifs and even that he might be fostering a kind of Buddho-Christian syncretism. He and his colleagues maintained, however, that their only purpose was to \"lead these people into a living faith in Jesus Christ.\" (Thelle, p. 571).\n\n45 Maha Bodhi, 41.3.4 (March-April 1933), 133,\n\n46 Most of the information on Chao-k'ung up to this point is taken from David Lampe and Laszlo Szenasi, The Self-made Villain, London, 1961.\n\n47 Victor Purcell, The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London, 1951, p. 47.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206530, "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-1972", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "72\n\nHENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\ntheir duties effectively. Of this latter group, student-interpreters in the Consular Corps probably made the greatest contribution — such names as Herbert A. Giles, E.H. Parker, E.D.H. Fraser, W.F. Mayers, Thomas Watters, G.M.H. Playfair, E.T.C. Werner,44 speak for themselves but Hong Kong cadets, although few in number (from 1861 to 1941 only eighty-five were appointed), also made a significant contribution and one should cite not only Lockhart but Sir Cecil Clementi45 and Sir R.F. Johnston. All these early British 'scholar-officials' helped to lay the foundations in Britain of Chinese studies and were among the first to staff and to head new departments of Chinese studies or to interest people in the study of a unique Asian civilisation and culture.\n\nLockhart, of course, was a busy, conscientious and efficient civil servant who could not spend his working hours brooding over knotty problems of translation or sinological conundrums; but he was always a remarkably energetic man and, according to his daughter, rose early in the morning and did his private work long before his Department was open officially.\n\nLockhart's studies appear to have extended into the evenings as well. There is an interesting reference to him, by T. Kirkman Dealy, in the Preface (1907) to his revised edition of Chambers' English-Cantonese Dictionary:\n\nI still vividly retain very clear recollection of a periodical after-dinner meeting which I was privileged to attend, in the middle eighties, at the former London Mission House, where, round a lamp-lighted table, under the personal presidency of the then venerable head of the London Mission [Dr. John Chalmers], sat the late Dr. Faber, Mr. J.H. Stewart Lockhart (now His Honour the Commissioner for Wei-hai-wei), Mr. (now Dr.) G.H. Bateson Wright, Head Master of Queen's College, Mr. Addys of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the late Mr. A. Falconer, Second Master of the old Government Central School, and others, eagerly discussing, assiduously comparing, commenting on, and revising, translations of portions of a minor Chinese classic made, since the previous session, by individual members of the class.46\n\nThis very Victorian passion for work, which embraced not only his official duties but his private interest in sinology, allowed Lockhart to publish in 1893 his first book, a Manual of Chinese Quota-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207757, "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-1976", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "130\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\n4 London Missionary Society Archives, London, England (hereafter given as L.M.S.A.), South China Box 5, Folder 3, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 26 Sept., 1853, and Jacket D, Yearly Report of the Hong Kong Mission, 25 Jan., 1854. For a brief notice of Keuh A-gong see my article, \"A Register of Baptized Protestant Chinese 1813-1842, Chung Chi Bulletin, No. 48 (Dec., 1970), p. 24. For Ng Mun-sow see my article, \"Dr. Legge's Theological School\", ibid, No. 50 (June, 1971), pp. 16-22.\n\n5 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 2, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 28 Jan., 1869, and Folder 1, Jacket A, letter of Wong Foon, 8 May, 1857. Another missionary estimate of Hung Jen-kan is the testimonial the Rev. John Chalmers sent to the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, Basel Missionary Society Archives (hereafter given as B.M.S.A.), Vol. IV, 1857-1862, letter dated, London Mission House, Hong Kong, 24 Dec., 1857: “I have great pleasure in giving my testimony to the Christian character of Hung Jin, the relative of Hung Sew Tauen, who, since his return from Shanghai in the year 1854, has been in the employment of our mission; first as a Christian teacher, and afterwards as a preacher and assistant missionary. His general behaviour has been such as becomes the Gospel; the work which we have given him to do, he has always executed to our satisfaction and not only so, but his zeal for the promotion of the cause of Christ has been marked. He is a young man of superior abilities, and I hope he may yet be honoured to labour successfully in the preaching of the gospel to his countrymen for many years.\n\n6 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket B, letter of Chalmers, 5 June, 1858.\n\n7 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket C, letter of Legge and Chalmers, 11 Jan., 1859, with enclosure of translation of letter of Hung Jan: \"Translation of Hung Jan's last letter, sent from Shanghai by Mr. Muirhead, who received it from a Chinaman who had been with Lord Elgin's expedition up the Yangtze. He wrote in 170 or 180 miles on that river below Hankow.\" Letters from \"Shau Kwan, Nan Gan [both on the north boundary of Kwangtung], one from the capital of Keangse, one from imperialist camp at Yaou Chow [in north of Keangse]\" are mentioned as having been written by Hung Jen-kan.\n\n8 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 2, Jacket C, letter of Legge, 24 Aug., 1860, and Folder 3, Jacket B, letter of Legge, 14 Jan., 1861.\n\n9 L.M.S.A., South China, Box 6, Folder 1, Jacket A, letter of Legge and Chalmers, 14 Jan., 1857.\n\n10 L.M.S.A., Legge Family Papers, letter of 28 Mar., 1861 and 24 Mar., 1871.\n\n11 For identification of Hung K'uei Hsiu see Jen (Chien) Yu-wan “**太平£Ø*^£$*M”, (Record of Visit with Descendants of the Taiping Hung Family) ***@** (Taiping Kingdom Miscellany), No. 4, and * Lo Hsiang-lin, (Historical Sources for the Study of the Hakkas), (Hong Kong, 1965), p. 409,\n\n12 B.M.S.A., Hong Kong School Report, 14 Feb. 1875, \"Teacher Schui Thin will shortly change places with Fung Khui-syu in Tschong Hang Kang, because the last as a son of a Tai Ping Rebellion King, cannot stay anymore in the mainland without danger to the life of himself and family.\"\n\n13 B.M.S.A., Hong Kong School Report, 16 Apr. 1873, and Die Evangelischen Heidenboten, Jan., 1866, letter of Lechler, 2 Oct, 1865.\n\n14 B.M.S.A., Chinese Mission Yearly Report 1885. The ship Dartmouth left Hong Kong 25 Dec., 1878 and arrived at Georgetown, British Guiana on 17 Mar., 1879. Among its 516 emigrants were seventy Christians.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210578, "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-1985", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "166\n\nWEI PEH T'I\n\nother hand, Edith wrote three letters in 1905 — mostly because she had so much to complain about Mrs. Ferguson. Therefore, more likely than not, Edith had written after April 1906, but these letters had not been saved.\n\nWe do know that Louese had a new baby in 1907. With four children under ten years of age, even with a household of servants that Louese must have had, she would have found little time for letter writing. We also know that she became seriously ill shortly after the last child, her only son Benjamin, was born. The family today thinks that she had leukemia. At least it is thought to be a form of cancer. She was sick for a long time, and died in 1909, when she was only thirty-seven years old.\n\nNOTES\n\nHarry Ryder is serving as Commercial Counsellor at the United States Embassy in Kuwait. The Strawbridges were originally Quakers who had settled in Philadelphia, but the Ryders are Episcopalians.\n\n2 At first, the Ryder family had believed Edith to be a classmate of Louese at the Central Friends School. Correspondence with Clayton Faraday, Archivist of the school, however, reveals that Louese had been a member of the class of 1890, but there was no mention of her among the list of graduates. Edith Rowe is unknown at the school. Therefore, a conjecture must be made that they were most likely classmates at the \"finishing school\". Had they been academic scholars, they would probably have been sent to Bryn Mawr College. I am grateful to Mr. Faraday for his timely reply to my inquiry, making it possible to correct the error in my original presentation to the society.\n\n3 Colonel Hedges lived in an apartment attached to the Strawbridge house in Bala Cynwyd after his daughter's marriage. He survived both his wife and daughter. Harry Ryder remembers his great-grandfather, but never knew his grandmother.\n\n4 Rowe letter dated 1 October 1903.\n\n5 Protestant Missionary records. I am grateful to the Reverend Carl Smith for looking up this information. Hopefully there is more data on Edith in the archives of the China Inland Mission in London or Shanghai.\n\n6 Jane Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility, American Women Missionaries in Turn-of-the-Century China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 13ff\n\n7 Hunter, 29-30.\n\n8 Rowe letter dated 2 March 1905. As it turned out, one of Louese's grandchildren, Harry V. Ryder Jr., did join the Foreign Service, but it was the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210827, "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-1986", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "161\n\nreligious purposes, recommended that no charge be levied against the lots, thus somewhat redeeming officialdom in the eyes of the missionaries.\n\nDr. Legge describes the site as in the healthiest part of town. This was important when there were daily deaths due to “Hong-kong fever.” The lots were up the hill a distance from Queen's Road, hence removed from its bustle and noise.\n\nThe premises were bounded to the south by Staunton Street, to the north by Hollywood Road, to the east by Elgin Street and to the west by Aberdeen Street. While being in the European section it was within five minutes' walk of the centre of the Chinese population.\n\nThe main building for the site was planned as a residence for missionaries and a school. Two rooms were reserved on both the lower and upper floors for classrooms.\n\nThe building was typical of the colonial architecture of Hong-kong, substantially built to resist typhoons with large airy rooms and wide verandahs to shade the interior from the summer sun.\n\nWhile plans for the large Mission House were being prepared, smaller outbuildings were erected on the lot. One of these was finished in July 1844, and Dr. Legge was planning to move his family into it as he had given up his rented quarters. Dr. Benjamin Hobson advised, however, that it would be unwise to occupy the building while the plaster was drying and paint fumes were strong. The school, however, was able to take up temporary quarters in another of the outbuildings until the Mission House was finished.\n\nIn addition to problems regarding land, building and students, there was the matter of a name for the relocated institution. Some thought it not wise to retain the name it had borne at Malacca. It had come into disrepute and its past reputation would not serve to promote the reorganised school.\n\nThe name adopted by the missionaries at a formal meeting in 1843 - The Theological Seminary of the London Missionary", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210828, "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-1986", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "162\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nSociety's Mission in China did not seem proper as there were no theological students. In addition it was cumbersome.\n\nDr. Legge rather evaded the question of name by stating, “we shall build a house and call it the London Missionary Society House.\" After the building was up, it was variously referred to as the Mission House, the London Missionary Society's Institute, Dr. Legge's school, the Malacca College and, by the Chinese, the Ying Wa Shue Yuen.\n\nAfter all the initial difficulties, the school did begin the Hong Kong phase of its history. Dr. Legge fell ill and the doctor advised that he should return home. He left Hongkong in November 1845 and did not return until August 1847. Upon his return the school took on renewed life.\n\nWHEN THREE CHINESE STUDENTS \"FOUND GOD IN BRITAIN”\n\nDr. James Legge did not have the opportunity to build a solid foundation for the school he established in Hongkong. He had just got it under way when the doctor ordered him home to Scotland for a period of rest. He and his family left Hongkong in November 1845.\n\nLee Kim-leen,\n\nIn the party were also four young Chinese Song Hoot-kiam and Ng Mun-sow, three of his students, and Jane A-sha under the care of Mrs. Legge.\n\nNg Mun-sow was an orphan boy the Legge family had brought with them when they moved from Malacca to Hongkong. Lee and Song had been former pupils at Malacca. They had not left with Dr. Legge because of parental opposition. They overcame this in time and joined Dr. Legge in Hongkong in 1845.\n\nBefore leaving Hongkong, Dr. Legge had asked the Directors of the Mission Society in London if he could bring the boys with him, but he had not received a reply. When he arrived in England, he found the Directors had not approved, but the deed was done.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210831, "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-1986", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "165\n\nsess qualifications which will make them highly prized and liberally salaried, as interpreters, clerks, and in other services. They cannot and ought not to be treated on the same plan of rigid economy as mere boys. To ensure the prosperity of the institution there ought to be an annual allowance of £25 each, to cover all expenses and support the young men in a manner respectable and befitting the position in life which they are intended to occupy.\n\nThe school at the London Mission House in Hongkong could now become what the missionary meeting of 1843 intended it to be, the Theological Seminary of the London Missionary Society in China. The meeting had dropped the designation of college as being too pretentious for the character of the reorganised school.\n\nIn adopting the name Theological Seminary, they intended to let the world know their labours were all directed to one end, the preparation of Christian workers. This did not mean the abandonment of a general education in literature and science, but it did mean the inclusion of definite theological studies.\n\nIf the name college had been too ambitious, so had the name Theological Seminary. From 1843 to 1847 there were no theological students. Now with the three young men Dr. Legge had brought back from England, the long delayed plans for his school could be realised. But the future was filled with disappointments.\n\nHIGH EXPECTATIONS,\n\nTHEN DEFECTIONS AND SETBACKS\n\nDr. James Legge returned to Hongkong from England in August 1847, renewed in health and with high expectations for the future of his school. He now could organise a theological class in addition to his other classes. The three boys, baptised during their visit overseas, would be the foundation for advanced studies. They showed every evidence of the sincerity and dedication necessary for the achievement of their announced intention to become preachers and evangelists.\n\nTheir enthusiasm was infectious. The school took on new vitality. There was an increased interest in its religious objectives.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210836, "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-1986", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "170\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nstrengthened by his baptism and resolve to study theology.\n\nAs a theological student, A-sow was soon preaching and in 1849 Dr. Legge noted that he began to show considerable ability in public speaking. The following year the missionary committee agreed that he should continue his studies for two or three more years. He was urged to improve his Chinese. At the same time he was to assist at the school in teaching English.\n\nIn December 1850, Dr. Legge received a shock, A-sow appeared in a hearing before the Police Magistrate. The case concerned the loss and reappearance of bills of exchange worth about $50,000,\n\nIn the summer of 1849, the agent of the P and O Shipping Company reported the loss of a valuable parcel from one of its ships. It had been addressed to the firm of Gibb, Livingston and Co, a firm that is still doing business in Hongkong today. About this time a cook's assistant picked up a bill for some £300 near Union Chapel in Hollywood Road not far from the London Mission House and School. Being written in English he could not read it. So he showed it to his employer. It was from the lost parcel.\n\nNow more than a year later A-sow turned up at the police station with two bills worth about £2,000, asking if the owner was known. He told the police he had received these bills and others from a former coolie in Dr. Legge's employ. The coolie in turn said he had received them from two other people, one who had left for California and the other was the same man who claimed to have picked up the £300 bill the year before.\n\nOn the basis of this testimony, the latter was charged with robbery. Under oath A-sow deposed that the London Mission Society coolie had brought the bills to him some ten months earlier asking if they were of importance.\n\nA-sow said he took them to the Rev Ho Fuk-tong for his opinion. The reply was they were worthless, whereupon A-sow put them in a drawer in his desk and forgot about them. Ho Fuk-tong at the hearing denied ever having seen the bills, thus putting into question A-sow's credibility.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210872, "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-1986", "page_number": 223, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "206\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nWhen the London Mission closed its work in Malacca and moved to Hongkong in 1843, Ho A-sun came with it. He wanted his children to have the advantage of education under the direction of Dr. Legge. His eldest child, a daughter, had already been under instruction of Mrs. Legge. She was the one who later married Ng Mun-sow. Two sons were of an age to be in the first small class in Hongkong of the transplanted Anglo-Chinese College.\n\nHo A-sun set himself up in the Lower Bazaar at Hongkong as a block-cutter and printer. His shop was next to the London Mission Chapel on Jervois Street. He had been baptised in Malacca and was an ardent propagandist for his new faith. When customers came to his printing-stationery store he gave them Christian tracts.\n\nHe was always ready to discuss religion with those who showed any interest. After shop hours he would go about the streets distributing literature and explaining the religion the foreigners had brought to China.\n\nWhile he had not the skill at preaching or the education or scholarship of one like Ho Fuk-tong, he had devotion and earnestness which in their own way were impressive. The mission called him “a humble, unobtrusive Christian.”\n\nThrough hard work he was able to acquire sufficient real estate in Hongkong to leave valuable properties at his death in 1869 to each of his six sons. He also provided that the family house on Hollywood Road west of Aberdeen Street be retained as a residence for his widow, sons and grandsons. This property was resumed by Government in 1883 for the purpose of acquiring ground for the erection of a new Central School.\n\nHis older children attended Dr. Legge's school. The younger ones were students at Central School after it was opened in 1862.\n\nThe eldest was Ho A-lloy. He became the most prominent of the family. Dr. Legge characterised him in 1852 as a very promising lad. He was disappointed later, however, when A-lloy had to be excluded from church fellowship for taking on a secondary", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213040, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "88\n\nAlthough Dr. Gibson responded favourably to the Chinese subscribers' request for a lady doctor, and despite his protestations to the contrary, it seems that he had no thought that she would be a full partner in the medical enterprise. From the correspondence, Dr. Gibson emerges as a man committed to the medical mission endeavour, taking every opportunity to expand its influence and asserting the right to be unencumbered in the running of the hospitals. At his arrival in 1897, as a well-qualified graduate of the Edinburgh medical school, he was in conflict with the District Committee over their control of the hospital via the Hospital House Committee, which comprised Dr. Ho Kai, the Hospital Chairman, the medical staff, and the missionaries of the LMS in Hong Kong. He insisted that their role was advisory, and that interference in the appointment of staff would impede the hospital's proper management. The Committee was dissolved, and from 1898, the hospital was managed by the LMS District Committee and the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Gibson. He was also unable to work satisfactorily with the private practitioners, leaders in the Hong Kong medical community, who worked as honoraries in the hospital, and their services were discontinued. Thus, from the beginning, Dr. Gibson attempted and, to some extent, gained his independence regarding what he saw as his sphere.\n\nHow well he coped with the pressures of his expanding role is questionable. Certainly, he regularly replied to LMS London correspondence months later, with apologies and complaints about how overworked he was. In 1906, Mr. Pearce, the Secretary of the Hong Kong District Committee of the LMS, commented that he hoped Dr. Gibson would be refreshed and less difficult after his furlough. Noting that, with the acceptance of an offer from an Australian nurse, Miss Langdon, to work voluntarily in the hospital, the medical mission would have four workers, Dr. Gibson continued: 'we must pray to be kept humble'. His co-operative relationship with Mrs. Stevens until her death in 1903 is apparent, as they shared plans for new services and began their twice-weekly trips to Kowloon to run the new clinic there. At her death on 5 December 1903, his grief and sense of loss were strong. Yet a lady doctor was a different matter and a threat in a way which a hospital matron was not.\n\nWhat Dr. Gibson wanted was a lady doctor who would work in a voluntary or privately funded capacity, as in the LMS China posts, and who, therefore, would not be a member of the hospital's establishment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 } ]