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part in affecting the social and political attitude of the students. The Anglo Chinese schools in Hong Kong were modelled on the Western pattern, in their curriculum, textbooks and teaching method. In addition, Chinese students here had frequent contact with British school-masters and fellow students of different nations and religions for starting from 1867, the Central School was opened to students of all nationalities and the enrolment included English, Portuguese, Americans, Japanese, Indians, Filipinos and others. The interflow of ideas and experience went on in their daily intercourse not only through formal lessons but also through simply being mixed in a class, in their recess and games. The interchange of ideas was further facilitated by the publication of a school magazine, which contained not only school news, but also interesting articles by staff or students.
As a youth and student, Dr. Sun Yat-sen spent his most formative and impressionable years in Hong Kong, and learnt much that could serve as a stimulus to his political awareness. It was never the intention of the Hong Kong Government to include any political content in the school curriculum. Care was taken, in fact, to avoid arousing any national sentiment among the Chinese students, and Chinese history was not taught in government schools. Yet, in a number of ways, some more subtle than others, the curriculum did stimulate political awakening and ideas of reform. In the Central School, topics like "Patriotism", "The Follies of Foot-binding" and "The True End of Education" were often set for English composition. Lessons on the history of England, such as the growth of parliamentary government or the Industrial Revolution, might directly or indirectly activate the minds of the students on the problems in China. What would a young man from China think of his local magistrate when he read about the municipal council in England, the rising influence of the merchant class, or the workers in the West, knowing how humble peasants fared in China? The impact of these lessons of course depended very much on the personality and mind of the individual. This explains why the Central School produced during these years officials of the Ch'ing court, reformists, as well as revolutionaries.10
Hong Kong from the mid-nineteenth century onward was an important centre for the publication of journals and newspapers containing news and articles from Hong Kong, China as well as the West. The more important early newspapers were the China Mail, the Hong Kong Daily Press and the Hong Kong Telegraph.11 These papers formed the important backbone of the China coast newspapers of the time.12