File No. 3513/6–11.
[Inclosure.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to Ambassador Reid.
Foreign Office,
London, July 5,
1907.
No. 17348.]
Your Excellency: With reference to my note
of the 28th of February, I have the honor to inform your excellency
that the governor of Hongkong caused inquiry to be made as to the
discrimination alleged to be exercised by the medical board of the
colony against practitioners from the United States.
The board states that there has never been any discrimination against
any nationality and that every case has been considered on its
individual merits. The board has always been guided by the terms of
the ordinance governing the matter in the colony, which states that
every person applying to be put upon the medical register “shall
prove to the satisfaction of the board that he is of good character
and that he has passed through a course of study and examination as
thorough and sufficient as the minimum course of study and
examination in any similar case required under the imperial medical
acts.”
By the laws of the United Kingdom the only foreign countries whose
medical graduates and diplomas are eligible for registration in the
British medical register are those which His Majesty in council has
held to offer just privileges of practice to British medical
practitioners. At present the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of
Japan have alone established such relations of reciprocity with this
country. As regards Japan, the General Medical Council has
recognized only the medical degrees of the imperial universities of
Japan, on the ground that the course of study and examinations for
these degrees extends over a period of at least six years, and is
more than equivalent to the minimum course required in this country.
The like is true of the degrees of the universities of Italy.
The General Medical Council has not recognized the diplomas of
nonuniversity schools and colleges in Japan pending the coming into
operation of a new law which purports to assimilate them to the
university qualifications.
I have the honor to transmit to your excellency herewith certain
papers, as marked in the margin, dealing with this question of
reciprocity.
Under the imperial medical acts, the General Medical Council of Great
Britain and Ireland is constituted the authority which shall decide
what course of study and examination is necessary, and since the
year 1894 the General Medical Council have made a five years’ course
obligatory. The medical board of Hongkong have therefore also
demanded evidence of a five years’ course of study from candidates
for medical registration in the colony.
There is at present only one Japanese doctor registered in
Hongkong—Doctor Majima. The papers first sent in by Doctor Majima
only showed a course of four years medical study after registration
at the Tokyo University and on that ground the board were of opinion
that he could not be registered. It was then proved to the
satisfaction of the board by the Japanese consul that in all cases
at the University of Tokyo before a student registered and commenced
his strictly medical studies he had to spend two years studying
preliminary science, including anatomy—that is to say, scientific
subjects which are ancillary to the study of medicine proper.
Under the regulations instituted by the General Medical Council of
Great Britain and Ireland, the first year of study after
registration is given up to the study of precisely the same subjects
as are studied at Tokyo during the two years before registration.
Thus it appears to the Medical Board of Hongkong that medical
students at the Tokyo University have actually to go through a six
years’ course as against the five years demanded by the General
Medical Council in England.
The medical board state that they would have no hesitation in
recommending for registration any candidate of whatever nationality
who can show proof of a similar course of study, but that four
years’ medical study, unless immediately preceded by at least one
year’s study of the sciences ancillary to that of medicine proper,
is not sufficient to satisfy the terms of the ordinance.
I have, etc.,
