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Show 6. be far worae than to olose the Hospital. Miss ^reck suggested refusing to treat gunshot wounds entirely, and I pointed out that they often need inpatient treatment more than anyone else, when they have broken bones, and Mr. Shih pointed out that we should have to treat gunshot wounds when sustained by members of the police and constabulary, and so doing, and at the same time refusing to treat civilians, would not do* Shih Mu Shih said that getting only a very few bandits in real trouble this way would have serious widespread and permanent bad effect on the evangelistic work He said that he himself would not dare to go to the country if bandits were offended by such treatment. He thot that the foreigners too would have a hard time if the bandits decided to be angry with the Hospital. I got two impressions very definitelyfrom the discussion; first that everyone, no matter how obviously innocent, would be treated as if fee were a bandit until proven not guilty, and that proof would be very difficult and very expensive, for guarantors of standing would have to be procured, and meanwhile the patient would be a prisoner under conditions such as are ordinarily imposed upon bandits when captured. The ter ror that ordinary people have of the law when they come in contact with the authorities was a horrible thinfc to think of, in contr ast to our foreign theory and practice of the treatment of accused people before trial. M*. Shih definitely contrasted the difference in Chinese and foreign law, and a suggestion from one of the foreigners that innocent people have nothing to fear from investigation was greeted with incredulity. Shih Mu Shih also gave a general imputation of selfseeking and injustice to Chin ese officialdom. The second impression that I received was that everyone seemed to think it of the utmost importance to keep in £he good opinion of the bandit population here, and took this feature to be of much more importance than to keep on the side of the authorities and to be known as an enemy of evil-doers and a supporter of law and order. The opinion was expressed that the bandits are with us forever and they never forget trouble made them, while the authorities are not really after the pacification of the countryside anyway. I was called out to see a patient just before the end of the mee ing so I was not there at the summary, but they decided to followmy suggestion and have a conference with the chief and try to get him to ehange his orders, and Dr. Hsu and 1 were appointed a committee to go to see the Magistrate, Ma Jul, a nephew od Ma Hung K'uei whom we know, and try to get him to understand the situation and perhaps to intervene in the affai of thechief of the constabulary, perhaps with the idea of inviting the magistrate, the chief, and thepolice commisioner to a feast obviously to thank them for their efforts in taking care of Dr. Hsu but in fact to talk over the matter of the rules about reporting gunshot wounds. The meeting took formal action approving a policy of the medical department to try to change those rules. It was understood without voting that if all other methods fail the Hos> ital will have to be closed. I pointed ou to them that quite likely the official will get some opprobrium himself if he forces usto close. If you have any suggestions as to the proper solution of this difficulty send them at once!J Yours sincerely, H.L.Robinson. |