"The Sheklung Leper Asylum was founded by Father Louis Lambert Conrardy in 1907, and located on two small islands facing each other about two miles from the big town of Sheklung on the Canton-Hongkong Railway. The men used to be put on one island; and the women, on the other. But the island for female lepers was so low and damp that it had to be evacuated in 1921 on account of the inundations. There were now about six hundred lepers living on the same island. By an agreement between the Canton Government and the Roman Catholic Mission, the former was to build all the necessary structures to house the lepers and to pay ten cents a day for each leper; the latter was to receive and take care of all lepers sent by the Health Department of Canton to the asylum, and to reserve the right of control of the institution. I was told by Rev. F. Deswazieres, the director of the asylum, that the Canton government was now paying $1,000 a month for the maintenance of this colony.

The asylum was evidently well managed. The place was kept scrupulously clean; the roads were well paved; and the evergreen beautiful flowers, cereals, fruits and mulberry trees were most abundant. With the exception of those who had lost their fingers and toes, all lepers, regardless of age and sex, were required to work. There were workshops for carpentry, sewing, weaving, and net-making. The land about the houses was divided into lots for tillage. The asylum provided the seed, farm implements, and buffaloes for plowing, and paid wages to the workers. The harvest went to the institution to cover the necessary expenses, but the surplus was divided among the laborers. The same system was adopted in other departments of work. The asylum conducted a school, where an educated leper taught forty leprous children to read, one hour every day. Of course the Catholics look after the religious life of the lepers. When we were visiting the asylum at seven o'clock in the morning the whole institution was attending a mourning mass for the tragic death of a young priest who was drowned on the previous day and who had come from France only a few months before.

We have no complaint to make as far as the administration of the asylum is concerned. But there was one great disappointment in that no injection of the chaulmoogra oil was given to any leper. When asked why they did not avail themselves of this wonderful medicine, Father Deswazieres replied frankly and laconically, "We have no money".

Source: T C Wu (General Secretary of the Chinese Mission to Lepers), "A report of my trip to South China", The Leper Quarterly, 1 (1927): 13-28, at pp.19-20.