The first meeting held by the Trustees took place in Noel Croucher's office in Holland House, Ice House Street, Hong Kong on Monday, 28th January 1980 at 12 noon followed by lunch at the Furama Hotel, Croucher, Todd, MacCallum and Huang being present. I had travelled to Hong Kong a day or two earlier and had several private discussions with Noel before the meeting notably on 27th January when he and I lunched together at the Hong Kong Club and had a lengthy discussion about the policy to be followed by the Foundation. Further discussions on policy took place at the Trustees' meeting and on other occasions before my return to England on February 4th. Unfortunately no written record of these discussions was kept and to our great sorrow Noel Croucher collapsed and died following a massive heart attack on 6th March before any further meeting was held. Accordingly the Foundation's policy, at least in its early years, has been formulated on the basis of the views expressed by our Founder to Ian MacCallum and myself in particular on many occasions.
Briefly put, Noel Croucher wished his trustees to operate in accordance with the following views and desires which he expressed to us during the last year or so of his life. 1. He wished to see scholarships or fellowships set up to enable young Hong Kong Chinese of outstanding ability in the fields of science, technology or medicine to be able to develop their talents further by postgraduate study and research in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in the Commonwealth. It was his hope that these talented young people would return to Hong Kong and follow careers there to the benefit of the Colony. For this reason he was not keen to send students to the United States believing that too high a proportion of them might stay there. He was not in favour of undergraduate scholarships to go abroad and did not wish to provide awards to overseas Chinese from e.g. Singapore, Taiwan or Malaysia holding that these places had sufficient wealth to look after their own students.
2. Although he did not specifically exclude the possibility that, once well established, the Foundation might extend its activities outside the areas of science, technology and medicine, he wished to keep clear of sociology and viewed social science in general with suspicion.
3. He empowered the Trustees to make grants to support research activities in institutions of higher education in Hong Kong with a view to their attaining high international standards and promoting the welfare and prosperity of Hong Kong. He did not, however, wish "to spend money on bricks and mortar". In accordance with his desire to upgrade institutions of higher education in Hong Kong he also empowered his Trustees to promote, at their discretion, exchange visits of senior scholars from overseas and the sending of university staff members overseas for special courses of training.
4. He also empowered his Trustees to promote contacts and joint research projects between higher educational institutions in Hong Kong and in the People's Republic of China at their discrétion.
Such then were the wishes expressed to us by our Founder and they form the basis of the policy which we his Trustees have sought to implement from the inception of the Foundation.
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