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now faced with the decision to pay the administration
costs of student exchanges and to subsidise the
teacher recruitment exercise or allow them to fail.
4.
We have argued that the Chinese should see the
cost of the educational services they are seeking in
the context of what Britain is offering as a whole.
It appears, however, that the Chinese on the contrary
take a narrow view of educational exchanges and
expect Britain to offer assistance no less generous
than our major Western allies and commercial
competitors. In the circumstances I should like the
British Council and the Department of Education and
Science to go ahead with a revised programme of
educational exchanges' which would involve our
carrying the administration costs of Chinese students
in this country and subsidising the costs of sending
British lecturers and teachers to China.
.5. If we do not do this, we shall not be able to
make a full contribution to China's educational plans
for modernisation and thus we shall not secure the
many-stranded relationship which we are seeking with
the Chinese. Our competitors will benefit; and there
could be adverse consequences for our political and
commercial interests.
16.
In
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