CODE 18-77
On fil Beference.
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PCS 285/393,
Mr Stone, HKD, WH312
HICD 286/1
UK-HK SCHOLARSHIPS SCHEME: THE SK TANG BEQUEST
Thank you for sending me copies of the recent papers relating to the S K Tang bequest.
1.
2. It does seem a little surprising that our predecessors apparently went to the lengths of setting up the UK-Hong Kong Scholarships Scheme without some adequate assurance that the use of the S K Tang bequest interest to fund the Scheme was necessarily soundly legally based. However I assume that the eventual disposition of the bequest, whether it ends up in the UK in some form of trust or is left in Hong Kong, will take into account that the Scheme having now been established and awards already provided to students (on 2 and 3 year courses), there can reasonably be no question of any withdrawal of the bequest funding (matched by HK Government funding) for the scheme. I imagine that in political terms alone, there could be no question of HMG pulling out of the Scheme. And certainly it would be unthinkable to consider withdrawing support from any student already on course.
3. It would be helpful if you would continue to keep CRD up to date with copies of any relevant correspondence about the use of the income from the bequest. Our concern is to ensure that the UK-Hong Kong Scholarships Scheme continues to be properly funded from the 2/3rds of the bequest income as originally agreed with the Hong Kong Government.
4.
As you will know from our telephone conversations there is also the continuing issue of the proper use of the past accumulation of the income of the bequest for the use of the scholarship fund. The Scheme is currently funding 17 students. But this is only using a part of the current interest income. As BTC Hong Kong have also urged, we should now (or in due course when the final disposal of the bequest principal is agreed) encourage the Hong Kong Committee to make plans for some suitable use for the income accumulation. Since this is an accumulation it would obviously not be practicable to use it to fund further long term awards on a continuing basis. But it could be used over a finite period to top-up any small shortfall in income to fund the some 24 scholars expected on the scheme by the end of Year 3; or it could be used to provide a number of one-off, say one year Masters or PhD awards (in addition to the continuing 24 scholars/awards).
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