RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 86 was to promote the responsibility of District Committees, by requiring their 'joint charge and control over the whole range of the labours carried on by their individual members.' The medical mission work in China was already distinguished by local financial support and greater reliance was being placed on the local committee for hospital management and administration. Given these factors, the reply of the LMS Board of Directors is understandable. The Chinese subscribers, 21 of the richest men in Hong Kong, therefore guaranteed a sum of $2,000 per annum for the lady doctor's salary, but added a condition: that she be available to treat the women of the subscribers' families in their own homes. As well, she would be required to spend her first year learning Cantonese in Hong Kong (rather than in Canton, where LMS language training was established), so that she could mix socially with the Chinese ladies and introduce to them Western hygiene and health care. Negotiations took several months, agreement reached in February, 1903, the delays attributed by the LMS Hong Kong Secretary, Mr. Pearce, to the inability of Dr. Ho to arrange a meeting of the subscribers. More likely, since the subscribers' money was essential, the delay was tactical, Dr. Ho certainly having been able to arrange their support very quickly initially. For Dr. Gibson, pursuit of the project was important, because he feared that the Tung Wah Hospital, having introduced some Western medicine and by now handling obstetric cases, would threaten the viability of the Alice Hospital and thereby, the mission enterprise in Hong Kong, saying: · + I feel confident that the Directors of the LMS do not wish that our Missionary Institution should be behind a purely heathen Institution in making provision for the relief of suffering. 18 His vision was at all times expansionary, having set up a clinic in Kowloon in 1901, in order to bring Western medicine to a wider public. In the event, he was obliged to accept a lady doctor on terms other than he would have wished. The repercussions of this were to affect the development of the service offered by the new AMMH and lead to the resignation of the lady doctor in 1909. From that point, supervision was fragmented until 1925, when Dr. Annie Sydenham took over the maternity hospital. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 100 빠 in 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. The 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, It 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 Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 102 government 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. NOTES 1LMS Eastern, South China Box 15, 1903, No 274 Mrs Stevens, (Matron of the Alice Memorial Hospital) to Mr Cousins, 24 April 1903 2Hong 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) 3Daily Press, 27 April, 1897 4Mrs Steven's Report 1891-99 5LMS South China Box 15, 1901 No 263 Dr Gibson to Mr Cousins, 1 February, 1901 6Mrs Steven's Report 1901 Alice Hospital Archives Copy 7May to Lyttelton, 21 July, 1904, #291 CO129/323 8LMS Box 12, 1892 No 212 Report of the Annual Meeting of the Finance Committee, enclosed with a letter from Dr. Burton, 19 April, 1893 9LMS 1908 Box 17, 1908 Memorandum from Dr Gibson to LMS Directors, 26 March, 1908 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 49 50 LMS Box 16, 1904-5 No 284 Dr. Sibree to Mr Cousins, 20 December, 1904 LMS Box 16, 1906-07 No 295 Dr Sibree to Mr. Cousins, 9 October, 1906 105 51 LMS Box 17, 1907 No 297 Minutes of the HKDC Annual Meeting 1906, 24-25 January, 1907 52 LMS Box 16, 1906 No 294 Dr Sibree to Mr Cousins, 27 July, 1906 LMS 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 54 LMS Box 16, 1906 No 294 Mr. Pearce to Rev G Cousins, 12 July, 1906 55 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 50 Indeed, 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 57 Pamela 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 58 LMS Box 16, 1906-07 No 295 Dr. Sibree to Mr Cousins, 9 October, 1906 59 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 60 The 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 61 Dr Ho Kat was Chairman of the Finance Committee 1887-1912 See Paterson, op.cit, Appendix 5, p1 62 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 ================================================================================