Enclosure to Governor's Despatch No. 380 of the 24th September 1901.
C0677 37826 REGR 28 OCT 01
The subject of this letter is one which admits of being treated at great length, but the writers will no doubt be ready to discuss the questions raised by them fully, if His Excellency grants them an interview, and I shall limit myself to as few remarks as possible.
I strongly recommend the application, which marks an era in the Colony's history, to His Excellency's most favourable consideration. It is the first occasion on which the Chinese have come forward as advocates of English education and of a modern education for girls.
I have been long convinced of the necessity for a school for the better class of Chinese, and I am satisfied that any money spent on it by the Government will give results a hundredfold more valuable than those derived from the same amount of money spent on education according to the present system; and I am equally sure that if one-half or one-quarter of the money now employed in trying to enforce the Sanitary laws had been used for educating the Chinese upper classes, the Colony would have been in an equally good sanitary condition and there would have been infinitely less friction.
As I have said before, enough money has been spent on low-grade schools for teaching Chinese English, and the Government will, in my opinion, be well-advised to rigidly limit its expenditure on such schools and to devote any further funds at its disposal for the education of Chinese, to giving Chinese boys of the well-to-do class such an education as will enable them, on leaving school, to read understandingly and with pleasure ordinary English Literature and to converse freely in the English language. A school like the one proposed would, I believe, accomplish this.
The salaries of the Staff have been fixed at a high rate, and as stated in the estimated expenditure is the highest possible. The probable expenditure for the first year, if the attendance is 40 at each school, will be $9,300 and $4,500 respectively. If in the fourth year the attendance rises to 75, it will be $8,500 and $3,000.
Of the gentlemen who have signed the letter, four - Dr. Ho Kai, the two Mr. Neis and Mr. Tsai, were educated in England, and they know by experience the position of a Chinese on his return to the Colony after an absence of many years as a boy and young man in Europe or America. It is hardly to be expected that Mr. Tsai or Mr. Neis would be willing to speak of their experiences, but Dr. Ho Kai would, I should think, be ready to discuss the subject privately.
The gentlemen who have signed their names in Chinese are Dr. Chow Tung Shang, Chairman of the National Bank of China, Dr. Ko Kan-Ting, ex-Chairman of the Tung Wah Hospital, and Mr. Wen Kai Shun, the present Chairman. Mr. S. L. Neis is a Solicitor.
Will it be possible to obtain the sanction of the Secretary of State to such a school? The school will be a private school, but...