RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 12 T. C. CHENG uneventful one, and he was noted for his co-operative attitude towards Government policies. This at least had the merit of demonstrating that no hazard was likely to result from having a Chinese representative permanently on the Legislative Council. When his six-year term was up in 1890, he asked not to be re-appointed, and a very prominent "local boy", Dr. Ho Kai (later Sir Kai Ho Kai) succeeded him. Dr. Ho Kai, born in Hong Kong in 1859, was the fourth son of the Rev. Ho Tsun-shin (alias Ho Fuk-tong) of the London Missionary Society. Having studied Chinese for several years, he was admitted to Class 4 of the Central School in 1870 at the age of 12. He was an extremely clever and hardworking boy for, according to the school record, he was already in Class 1, the top form, in September 1871. He completed his studies at the Central School the following year, and proceeded to Palmer House School, Margate, England. From there he entered St. Thomas' Medical and Surgical College and received the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery from the University of Aberdeen in 1879. In the same year, he was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England by examination. He then turned to the study of law and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in May 1879. He was Senior Equity Scholar, Lincoln's Inn, in 1881 in which year he passed the finals with flying colours and also married a charming English girl, Alice, the eldest daughter of the late John Walkden of Blackheath. On his return to Hong Kong in 1882 with his newly-wedded wife, he first practised medicine but was unsuccessful, because the Chinese at that time were not prepared to avail themselves of western medical treatment unless it was offered free. He then turned to the Bar and since 1882 had practised as a barrister in Hong Kong. Until his death in 1914, Dr. Ho Kai rendered his services freely and ungrudgingly to the Hong Kong community. For many years he was a valuable member of many important committees, including the Standing Law Committee, the Public Works Committee, the Examination Board, the Medical Board, the Sanitary Board, the Po Leung Kuk Committee, the Tung Wah Hospital Advisory Committee, the District Watch Force Committee, the Architects' Advisory Board and the Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Technical Institute. For 26 years he was a Justice of the Peace and for 25 years he represented the Chinese community on the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 18 H. A. RYDINGS arrangements can be made for the Society's house) one, and the same building.” Amongst the reasons which he adduced for this was that the former Governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, had reserved a plot of land "between the Chinese Hospital [where Hobson worked] and the Gap" for an object of this kind. A special meeting was called on 8th July (14) to consider Dr. Hobson's proposal; two supporting resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the Society expressed its gratitude to Dr. Hobson for the zeal and ability with which he had performed his duties as Secretary, and its regret on his forthcoming departure. As befits a medical missionary, Dr. Hobson believed in actions as well as words. The Chinese Hospital where Hobson worked, as already mentioned, was moved in 1843 from Macao to the vicinity of Morrison Hill in Hong Kong, and was thus close to the Morrison Education Society's school, from which Hobson attracted pupils to further studies in scientific and medical fields (15). In this he was following a practice established by Dr. Peter Parker, the first American medical missionary who started an ophthalmic hospital in Canton in 1835. Of Hobson it is said that the attention which he gave "to the education of young men as his assistants was amply repaid in the benefit derived from their intelligence. Some of those under his care were able to perform various operations, and one, more especially, had acquired so great an amount of professional skill that some of the European surgeons of the Colony of Hong Kong, by whom he was examined, expressed their admiration of his training" (16). These efforts may be considered the beginnings of medical education in China and Hong Kong, though it was not until 1887 that Hobson's vision of a College of Medicine for Chinese in Hong Kong was fulfilled, long after his death, and many years later than the establishment of other medical schools in China. The idea of a medical school was linked quite sensibly in the minds of the members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society with that of their own premises, in which could be kept a museum for specimens of natural history and morbid anatomy, and their library of medical textbooks and journals. The problem of obtaining suitable premises seems to have dogged both the immediate and the latter-day successors of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (for which however it was solved by provision of a room in the Court House, presumably through the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 290 Editor's Footnotes DONALD C. BOWIE 1. Dr. Bowie's own career and achievements, before and after the historic events of which he writes, will be of interest to readers of this Journal. They are as follows: M.B. 1918. University of Glasgow. F.R.C.S. Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh 1929. Honorary F.R.C.G.P. (Royal College of General Practitioners) 1969. Sir Arthur Keith Medallist, Royal College of Surgeons, England, 1969. Main Appointments, Army. Commissioned R.A.M.C. 1918. Served in U.K., France, Germany, Turkey. Seconded to Egyptian Army 1923-25. Shanghai Defence Force 1927. Territorial Adjutant, 54th East Anglian Division T.A. 1928-30, Surgical Specialist, British Troops in Egypt 1930-35. Surgical Specialist, Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, London 1936-39, Surgical Specialist, British Troops in China, Hong Kong, 1939. Prisoner of War, 1941-45. Reader in Military Surgery, Royal Army Medical College, London 1946-48. Consulting Surgeon, Middle East Land Forces 1948-50. Retired 1950. (voluntarily) Civil. Regional Postgraduate Dean, British Postgraduate Medical Federation, University of London in North West, South West Metropolitan and Wessex Hospital Regions, 1950-70. Now Retired. Dr. Bowie was awarded the O.B.E. (Military) in 1946. 2. Dr. Bowie's account of Japanese attitudes and behaviour can usefully be set beside the comments of Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke and Dr. Li Shu-fan, the eminent Hong Kong surgeon, who both experienced them at first hand. Sir Selwyn writes (pp. 71-72 of his autobiography referred to at p. 178 above): Nobody can deny that man's potential for cruelty was exhibited on an appalling scale by the Japanese in the stress of war. It was predictable in the circumstances that I should suffer my share of ill-treatment at their hands, and this is what presently came about. Yet the feature of their character that stood out from that whole experience was in fact their unpredictability. They would be acquiescent, even humane, when least expected, vicious with sudden fury after a phase almost of apathy. They could respect, sometimes, a principled stand or an unflinching argument, and yet visit a meaningless rage upon the helpless. To attempt to understand them was the plain duty of anyone seeking to protect a community that was at their mercy, and the first lesson to be learned was that surrender violated their military code, making a prisoner a non-person. But this too was a generalization, and as such to be guarded against as one guarded against racial prejudice. For men are not cast in one mould, even by war, even by a code or an ideology. Dr. Li's account of Hong Kong under Japanese rule is given in chapters 6-9 of his autobiography, Hong Kong Surgeon (London, Victor Gollancz, 1964) in which his comments at pp. 159-160 are relevant here. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 87 Profession and Gender; controlling the lady doctor. In 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. The appointment desired by the LMS Hong Kong District Committee was quite specific. The Lady Doctor must. 1 have had a thorough training, specially in Midwifery and Diseases of Women 2 have a good knowledge of Children's Diseases 3 be a Lady willing to do visiting to attend cases in their own homes 4 be a lady willing to teach and train native women in western methods of midwifery 5 be a Lady Doctor to work exclusively among women and children 6 be a Lady who is willing to act under the medical Superintendent 21 These 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. ================================================================================