Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 677

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of whom the Registrar General was until 1888 the Official Protector, the Tung Wa Hospital has been in certain respects a great misfortune, yea, actual injury to Hongkong, as well as loss to the Chinese residents, because the general opinion and the public belief that it was doing the work it was intended to do, viz., that of a really good and well conducted hospital, has steadily blocked the way to the gradual and judicious introduction of modern methods of medical and surgical treatment, as has been successfully done many years ago in India, in Ceylon, in Singapore, and in fact wherever Her Majesty's Government has been established for any length of time. In Singapore there is a large Chinese population constantly recruited from China and equally attached to their usages and habits as that resident here. A hospital was founded there in 1880 for the treatment, on European methods, of all nationalities. The bulk of the patients are Chinese, who attend the hospital voluntarily. No opposi- Appendix tion is, or, as far as is known, has been experienced to European medical treatment. The patients come for that treatment.

There may

be some who like to return to native treatment, but such cases are not common. The medical staff of the hospital consists of both Europeans and Asiatics. European methods of treatment are insisted on. If this has been done in Singapore, where the Officers of the Government are not trained Chinese Scholars, why could it not have been done in Hongkong, where the officials have a knowledge of the Chinese and the Chinese language and claim to be the only persons in the Colony possessed of such knowledge? I think I may be permitted to say that there are no people more amenable to reason, or more easily governed, than the Chinese provided the rule is consistent and continuous. LI HUNG CHANG, one of the most distinguished statesmen in China, on a recent important mission to Europe and America, had his European medical adviser in attendance throughout his extended travels, and His Ex- cellency is reported to have attributed, to his Doctor's professional skill, much of the success of the mission, while it is a fact that Princes and members of the Imperial family avail of the medical services of the eminent Dr. DUDGEON in Peking. In India the difficulties and the prejudices, arising out of the numerous castes and race hatreds Evidence there and on religious grounds, were stronger and greater than any that were or are to be met with in Hongkong, but were gradually overcome and ultimately conquered. Why could not similar success have attended properly directed efforts in the like direction in Hongkong? That this same wise, far-seeing policy and beneficent rule has not been followed in this not unimportant and well favoured Island is, I submit, a dark blot on the annals of Crown Colony Government, and reflects anything but credit on the system adopted in the management of our Chinese population and Chinese affairs.

Question 2.—If yes, whether the Commission can suggest or recommend any matter or thing by which the present organization and administration of the Hospital can be improved or carried on more effectively; and

Question 3.-If no, whether the object and purpose of the IIospital can be fulfilled by any other organization with any suggestions or recommendations the Commission may make on the subject.

p. 65-74.

35. As appears from my answer to the first question, the Tung Wa Hospital has in many respects fulfilled the primary object and purpose for which it was ⚫ established, but in other and equally important respects-mainly through the deficiencies on the part of successive Registrars General-the institution has not attained the position Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL intended that it should attain, viz., that it should in time become a really good and well conducted Hospital. My answer therefore to the Appendix second and third questions may usefully be combined in one.

36, I am most decidedly of opinion that the ends and objects for which the Tung Wa Hospital was originally founded and endowed can be more effectively and more economically carried out in an institution of that kind under Chinese management and control, than in any institution directly under the Government and administered by Europeans, and I am in favour of maintaining and extending the Tung Wa if there is

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