Kennedy Town Temporary Police Station

In 1894 May, the Hong Kong government established a permanent committee in the sanitary board for handling everything related to the bubonic plague (Law, 2018). However, the sanitary board had no experience in dealing with plague outbreaks, all they knew was the plague is highly contagious (Chan-Yeung, 2020). To control the bubonic outbreak effectively, they invoked the Public Health Ordinance 1887 to give a legal basis for the decision of isolating all infected patients in the hospital ship Hygeia, and western medicine treatment would be provided there (Law, 2018; Pryor, 1975). However, many Chinese patients refused to receive medical treatment in Hygeia, as there were rumors floating around that doctors in Hygeia would kill Chinese children for their liver to produce a ‘cure for the plague’ (Chan-Yeung, 2018). To avoid the compulsory isolation on the ship Hygeia, those Chinese patients tended to not report to the government that they were infected (Pryor, 1975; Starling, 2003).

The Chinese communities even expressed their discontent with the sanitary measures by protests - on 20 May 1894, a group of sanitary officers were stoned and locked in a house (Chan-Yeung, 2020; Yang, 2018). On 22 May 1894, Tung Wah Hospital representatives and government officials held a emergency meeting - they understood that Chinese people distrusted western medicine, but isolation is necessary for controlling the plague, so they asked Tung Wah Hospital to establish new hospitals in Kennedy Town Temporary Police Station and Kennedy Town Glasswork Factory for housing new Chinese patients (Chan-Yeung, 2020; Yang, 2018).

However, the Chinese community was still dissatisfied with the arrangement, Chinese elites even held a deputation on May 20 1894, and they requested the government to allow all Chinese patients on Hygeia to transfer back to hospitals in Kennedy Town (Chan-Yeung, 2020; Yang, 2018). Governator Robinson initially denied their suggestion, but the relationship between the colonial government and Chinese was getting intensified, so the government eventually allowed all patients on the ship to transfer back to hospitals in Kennedy Town (Chan-Yeung, 2020; Yang, 2018; Law, 2018).

Reference:
Pryor, E. G. (1975). THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG. Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 15, 61–70.
Starling, & Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences. (2006). Plague, SARS and the story of medicine in Hong Kong. Hong Kong University Press
Moira M. W. Chan-Yeung. (2020). A Medical History of Hong Kong. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.
羅婉嫻：《香港西醫發展史》（香港：中華書局，2018年）。
楊祥銀：《殖民權力與醫療空間：香港東華三院與中西醫服務變遷（1894-1941年）》（北京：社會科學文獻出版社，2018年）。