It is unnecessary for me to enter into a reconsideration of the arguments which led to its adoption. That it is held by very large sections of the English and Chinese Communities has already been proved by the petitions which accompanied Sir Henry Blake's Despatches No. 343 of the 3rd September and No. 380 of the 24th September last; and you have expressed your approval of the principle in your Despatch No. 408 of the 6th December last. Whether the principle should be carried out to its logical conclusion and applied to a school like Queen's College, which has for many years been a school of mixed races, is a question which received the careful consideration of the Education Committee, whose arguments in paragraphs 36 to 39 and elsewhere appear to me, despite Dr. Wright's remarks, to be sound.
But as Mr. Irving left Hongkong on leave of absence a few days before Dr. Wright's memorandum was sent in to Government, and he has not yet had the opportunity of reading and considering it, I would suggest that before coming to any decision upon this part of the Committee's new educational scheme, it might be advisable for you to communicate the terms of Dr. Wright's memorandum to Mr. Irving and ascertain whether its arguments are such as to induce him to reject or modify the conclusion which he and his colleagues arrived at after several months' mature deliberation.
Dr. Wright's experience of educational matters in this Colony is so extensive and covers so large a portion of the history of the Colony that any opinions expressed...