vertise its existence and value for students and researchers, the Urban Council mounted an exhibition of important books from the collection at the Library between 18 November and 1 December. Two talks were given during the exhibition; one in Cantonese on the RAS Library by our Hon. Librarian, Mr. Peter Yeung and one by myself, in English, on the RAS in Hong Kong and Shanghai 1845-1987.
Concluding Remarks
I have left one major concern to the end. Our greatly increased membership is a source of gratification; for its own sake and because it reflects much effort. However, this great increase does bring one factor into sharp focus. Whereas at this time last year one-fifth of the Society's membership was Chinese, the new members are almost all European, considerably reducing that percentage thereby. This is not the way we ought to be going. The future of the Society requires that, whilst maintaining the English-speaking basis for our literary work, we should move towards recruiting more Chinese and other local members from the professional, managerial and academic sectors, having more Chinese councillors and office bearers, and using Chinese language alongside English as far as may be practicable in our programme activities. We have a balance on Council at present, and in my view this should be maintained and extended. The study of Asia is our heritage and task, as Professor Drake said in his inaugural lecture to our Society in 1960. To continue to play this role in Hong Kong after 1997 the Hong Kong Branch must ensure that it is firmly rooted in Hong Kong society. The Council endorsed this view at its last meeting, when considering our review, and requested me to form a working group to look carefully into this important matter.
Finally, I wish to thank my colleagues on the Council, and those members of the Society who have helped during the past year, for their much appreciated support and encouragement.
11 March 1988
James Hayes
President
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