The 1894 Hong Kong plague, part of the third plague pandemic, was a major outbreak of the bubonic plague in Hong Kong. While the plague was harshest in 1894, it returned annually between 1895 and 1929, and killed over 20,000 in total, with a fatality rate of more than 93%. The plague was a major turning point in the history of colonial Hong Kong, as it forced the colonial government to reexamine its policy towards the Chinese community and invest in the wellbeing of the Chinese.
Origins
The third plague pandemic originated from plague reservoirs of Rattus tanezumi in Yunnan, China. Plague outbreaks were documented in Yunnan province gazetteer records as early as 1772, gradually spreading along provincial trade routes in subsequent decades. In the 1850s, driven by trade networks, troop movements, and refugee migrations (see Panthay Rebellion), plague outbreaks accelerated in the province. These outbreaks spread to parts of nearby Guangxi and Guangdong by the 1860s, reaching the Pearl River Delta in the 1890s.
An outbreak in neighboring city of Guangzhou from January 1894 onwards killed 80,000. By March 1894, British scientists and doctors in Hong Kong became aware of the outbreak in China. By the end of April, the government in Hong Kong requested Dr. Alexander Rennie, the consular surgeon for Canton, to report on the disease. Rennie identified it as the bubonic plague, but said it would not be particularly contagious except to those living in filth, poor ventilation, and with a poor water supply.
The spread to Hong Kong from Guangdong was accelerated by the unrestricted movement of workers and boats into Hong Kong. The outbreak also coincided with the replacement of junks with steamships, which made travel between infected ports faster and more convenient, and the return of Chinese celebrating Qingming Festival from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. On March 2, 1894, a large Chinese procession was held in Hong Kong, which involved the arrival of 40,000 laborers from Canton.
Living conditions of the Chinese
The Chinese-majority Tai Ping Shan district, where the first cases appeared, was characterized by having poor ventilation, drainage and sanitary services, and was overcrowded. In 1880, Colonial Surgeon Dr. Philip Burnard Chenery Ayres reported that, while he was investigating the sanitary conditions of the Chinese, "many and many a time have I come out of the houses to vomit in the street, in spite of using strong scents and essences to prevent it," and he warned that "while this state of things continues we stand in danger of being visited at any moment by some fearful epidemic, and I do not think the most advanced sanitary authority at home would combat this opinion."
In 1881, Royal Commissioner Osbert Chadwick was sent to Hong Kong to investigate the sanitation situation of Hong Kong. Chadwick proposed improvements on drainage, water supply and night soil removal system, which he hoped to be implemented "without waiting for the necessity to be demonstrated by the irresistible logic of a severe epidemic." His recommendations were not acted upon, save for the establishment of the Sanitary Board.
The summer of 1894 saw Hong Kong suffering from a dry spell, which did not wash away the usual house refuse accumulating on the streets. This helped the growth of rats and fleas, and was thought to have accelerated the spread of the plague.
Spread in Hong Kong
The first case was discovered by Scottish doctor James Alfred Lowson, acting superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital, on May 8, 1894. The patient, named "A. Hung", was a ward boy, presumably working in the Government Civil Hospital. "A. Hung" died 5 days later. On May 10, 1894, the city was declared an infected port. On the same day, a Sanitary Board meeting was convened. The Sanitary Board was headed by James Stewart Lockhart. At the meeting, Lowson argued for a strong quarantine policy, including the removal of Chinese from their houses. Some on the Board, including Dr. Kai Ho, expressed concerns that the policy would offend the Chinese, and that the Chinese would refuse to comply to such government policies. The Sanitary Board opted to follow the advice of Lowson.
On May 12, a Permanent Committee was formed to enforce quarantine measures. The committee was chaired by J. J. Francis and included Captains-superintendent Francis Henry May and Ayres. Lowson was given de facto charge to contain and combat the plague.
The Whitewash Brigade
On May 11, legislation was passed to make the reporting of cases compulsory and to allow authorities to enter houses to search for and remove infected persons for isolation. House-to-house inspection and disinfection were performed by the local garrison, the Shropshire Light Infantry. The inspection and disinfection team was known as the "Whitewash Brigade", consisting of around 300 men and 8 officers.
During an inspection, the occupants were given new clothes and sent to temporary lodgings on Chinese boats anchored off Stonecutters Island or to government-hired buildings, including the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals. Their own clothes and fabrics in the house would be sent to a steam disinfecting station. The house was then sprayed with a solution of perchloride of mercury or fumigated by chlorine gas, the floor and furniture cleaned with Jeyes Fluid and the walls lime-washed ("whitewashing"). Household items suspected of being contaminated were burnt.
Members of the Shropshire regiment became the first Europeans to be affected by the plague. At least one officer died to the disease.
At the time, Chinese residents of Hong Kong had a deep mistrust of Western medical science, making the containment of the plague difficult. The distrust was exacerbated by ineffective treatment and highly intrusive policies by the colonial government. The Chinese would hide their sick from the authorities, and infected bodies would be thrown out at night to avoid detection. The western practice of using ice to cool down a fever was rejected by the Chinese, who viewed extreme cold as damaging to the body. The quick and hasty burials performed by the government, with the bodies covered in quicklime, were also offensive to the Chinese. In 1903, the government had to reimburse the cost of disinfected clothing to the Chinese, as they had disliked the smell of disinfectant.
The house-to-house inspection was especially resisted by the Chinese community. Chinese ladies were reluctant to let strangers, let alone foreigners, enter their boudoirs. Rumors of British soldiers seeking to rape Chinese women arose. In one instance, on May 19, the Whitewash Brigade was pelted with stones, bricks and rubbish. In another instance, around 100 women, relatives of the deceased, organized a meeting at Tung Wah Hospital, where they wailed and cried against the community leaders and hospital administration. The government responded to the meeting by forbidding searchers to enter Chinese households without permission, and by allowing patients to choose Chinese treatment in Chinese hospitals. Members of the Chinese community continued to petition Governor William Robinson to halt the cleansing operations completely, and to allow patients to travel to China to seek treatment. Robinson initially refused, but when compradors of major hongs threatened to have their staff leave their posts, Robinson allowed patients to travel to Guangzhou for treatment, and corpses to be transported there for burials. However, the whitewashing operations was to be continued.
As a result, an anti-government poster campaign was launched in Canton and Hong Kong. This inflamed more rumours against the English doctors, who were said to be making medicine with the bodies of plague victims. Robinson responded by moving the gunboat HMS Tweed to Taipingshan and offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the poster distributors. Viceroy Li Hanzhang of Canton was also requested to make a statement to deny the rumours. However, these efforts proved ineffective in building trust between the Western and Chinese communities. Whitewashing could only continue after a great deal of persuasion and explanation by both the government and some esteemed members of the Chinese community. After a time, the operations were suspended.
Temporary hospitals
Established hospitals around the major areas of outbreak would only accept suspected patients for observation. Once the symptoms of plague appeared, they would be moved to specialized plague hospitals. The plague hospitals included a temporary hospital at the Kennedy Town Police Station (known as the "Kennedy Town Hospital", opened on May 14) and the hospital ship Hygeia (Chinese: 海之家), ran by staff of the Nethersole Hospital.
When patients were removed according to the policy from Tung Wah Hospital to Hygeia, violent protests erupted in the city. Tung Wah Hospital had been a reputable hospital in the Chinese community. It practiced Chinese medicine and was seen as a symbol of Chinese independence in a colonial city. Thus, the hospital came under fire from the Chinese community when they allowed patients to be transferred away to plague hospitals. At one point, doctors had to carry pistols to protect themselves. The riots led to the establishment of a temporary plague hospital at Kennedy Town glass works, known as the "Glassworks Hospital" on May 21. This hospital would be staffed by personnel from the Tung Wah Hospital. The patients were offered a choice between the Glassworks Hospital and plague hospitals with European staff. The Chinese-majority patients overwhelmingly chose the Glassworks Hospital. The hospital quickly became overcrowded and sanitary conditions worsened. On June 8, another temporary hospital at an unfinished pig depot was also set up, known as the "Slaughterhouse Hospital", again using staff from Tung Wah Hospital in hopes of relieving the situation at the Glassworks Hospital.
When the Chinese medicine offered by the Glassworks Hospital proved to be ineffective, and conditions of the hospital continued to worsen, it was closed down on June 16, and its patients were transferred to either Guangzhou or to the Slaughterhouse Hospital. Subsequently, a "New Glassworks Hospital" was set up at the site, this time staffed by European doctors from the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals. In July, a hospital was established in Lai Chi Kok near a graveyard, but it did not receive any patients. This was attributed to the Chinese refusing to be admitted into the hospital as they felt "they were sure to die." Hygeia was later used only to house European, Eurasian and Japanese patients.
Economic downturn
The plague saw a mass exodus of panic-stricken Chinese workers back to China, causing a significant economic downturn in the city. The North-China Herald noted that "it is not the plague they are flying from, as they are going to the nest at Canton from which [the plague] came to Hong Kong. They seem rather to be flying from the sanitary measures taken in Hong Kong." Some were seeking a proper burial on Chinese grounds. At the height of the plague, around 1,000 persons were leaving Hong Kong daily. In May and June, it was estimated that 80,000 to 90,000 Chinese, out of a population of 200,000, left Hong Kong Island. Owners of hongs left for China, leaving the businesses to caretakers, slowing down the business operations. The colony suffered a severe labour shortage. Inflation followed, with prices of food items rising by 30 to 50 percent. As visitors to Hong Kong had to be quarantined, trade between Hong Kong and China was decimated. In June, Robinson reported to Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Ripon that "without exaggeration I may assert that so far as trade
and commerce are concerned the plague has assumed the importance of an unexampled calamity."
Land resumption
On May 31, a bylaw drawn up by the Sanitary Board allowed for the eviction and closure of houses deemed unfit for habitation. Houses on the streets of Kau Yu Fong (Chinese: 九如坊), Sin Hing Lee (Chinese: 善慶里), Nga Choi Hong (Chinese: 芽菜巷) and Mei Lun Lee (Chinese: 美侖里) were demolished, and a brick wall was erected surrounding those areas.