C
No.
0.343.
Sir,
309
35 250
REGE
CT J
Government House,
Hongkong, 3rd September, 1901.
I have the honour to forward a copy of a
Petition received by me and signed by over one hundred of the
principal British inhabitants of the Colony.
2.
The Petition prays that a School may be
established for Europeans only. The statements made in the
Petition are in accordance with the facts, and having very
carefully considered the question myself, and submitted the
Petition for examination and report by the late and present
Inspectors of Schools, I find myself forced to the conclusion
that however opposed the proposal may be to the accepted
theory of state-aided education, the establishment of a School
for European Children is in this Colony highly expedient.
Putting aside the deteriorating moral
effects of the mixture of the two races in School, a deterio-
ration I venture to say not confined to European boys, it is
evident that European scholars, who are obliged to regulate
their progress by that of their Chinese classmates who are
painfully endeavouring to assimilate Western education taught
to them in a foreign language, are placed at a serious dis-
advantage. Under such a system I can understand the failure
3.
RIGHT HONOURABLE
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.
of