308
THE ARTS
mainly in Chinese. The Hok Hoi Library of about 32,000 volumes of Chinese classical literature is on permanent loan to Government. Both the Kotewall Collection and the Hok Hoi Library are housed in the City Hall library, where they are available for consultation. The work of cataloguing them is in progress, but will take a considerable time to complete.
The Colonial Secretariat library houses 9,099 volumes. These include many Government publications; books written especially about Hong Kong, including publications by local authors, refer- ence books on such subjects as public administration, sociology, economics and political science; and standard works on the history of the Commonwealth and of the countries of south-east Asia. Apart from being a departmental reference library, it is a useful source for research workers in matters concerning Hong Kong and is available to members of the public.
BRITISH COUNCIL
The British Council continues to make a valuable contribution to the cultural life of Hong Kong. Following the opening of the City Hall in March it assisted in bringing to the Colony-several artistes of international repute, and also arranged several exhibitions.
Over 85,000 books were borrowed from the British Council libraries in Victoria and Kowloon during the year and the reading rooms, containing some 120 British periodicals, continued to be extremely well used. About 1,300 films on medical, nursing, scientific, technological and general subjects were borrowed, as well as music and speech records, film strips, tape recordings and small photographic exhibitions. Books and periodicals valued at $96,000 were presented to the libraries of the Colony's three post- secondary colleges. Amongst these were 120 microfilms of the Tunhuang manuscripts, which are in the British Museum in London. A member of the British Council staff in Thailand came to Hong Kong to assist the Chung Chi Conference on the Teaching of English, and the Head of the Department of English at Chung Chi College was assisted financially to represent Hong Kong at a similar conference which took place in Jesselton.
During the year six British Council scholarships were awarded, while four persons were assisted financially to go to Britain and