An important feature is the creation of a translating department in which German linguists assisted by Chinese scholars will undertake the translation of German text-books and other works into the vernacular—presumably, though it is not specifically stated, into the Mandarin or literary dialect. "The activity of this important department," we are further and very significantly told, "will not be confined to school work only, but will be extended to the widest sphere." The whole scheme is worked out on broad lines capable of the greatest expansion. Its importance has already been fully appreciated, and as a result of the negotiations which have now been carried through between the two Governments, the assistance thus afforded by Germany in the cause of educational reform must yield valuable results in the relations between Germany and China." Nor do the German authorities entertain the slightest doubt about the advisability of burdening the State with expenditure directed to these important ends. The moneys that have been raised in Germany from private sources for educational purposes in the Far East must be regarded as wasted unless an organization is created along definite lines with definite aims which, in close co-operation with the Chinese Government, will bring German intellectual life nearer to the new China that is now awakening."
It is this last sentence of the German report which the "China Emergency Committee" would do well to take to heart before persisting in its own scheme, of which the one result that can be safely predicated is that it will split up British resources and British enterprise to the detriment of the Hong-kong University. The scheme put forward by the "China Emergency Committee" under the powerful patronage of Lord William Cecil is also well known to your readers. How far a "federation" of schools—for the colleges referred to in that scheme are nothing more than schools—scattered throughout China can be converted into a University by the mere addition of a central body of professors is more than doubtful: but what is quite certain is that none of these establishments sprung up in Chinese cities can have either the educational atmosphere or the broad outlook of a University located in Hong-kong. It is perhaps not unnatural that as a clergyman Lord William Cecil should be anxious to secure a preponderance of missionary influence, but a bias so distinctly proselytizing is hardly calculated to allay the distrust which still exists amongst the Chinese official classes in regard to Western educational methods, whilst the deliberate preference given to the cultivation of abstract sciences and philosophy rather than to more material subjects such as engineering and medicine will scarcely commend his scheme to the hardworking middle classes in China, whose mind is set upon the acquisition of practical knowledge. In its present form the scheme is altogether too crude to repay detailed criticism. What, however, seems most regrettable to those who willingly recognize the excellent intentions of Lord William Cecil and his friends is their utter disregard of opinion, whether British or Chinese, which does not happen to coincide with their own. One would have imagined that before launching his scheme Lord William Cecil, who was at Shanghai only a few months ago, would have spared a few days to make personal inquiries at Hong-kong as to the merits of a University scheme which has enlisted the support not only of so distinguished a Governor as Sir Frederick Lugard, but of so influential a Chinese community as that of Hong-kong. In the eyes of a Little Englander the fact that Hong-kong is a British colony might seem to be in itself a disqualification, but that cannot be the case with Lord William Cecil. It is apparently one of the many instances of the lamentable inability of Englishmen to realize the necessity which the Germans so thoroughly understand of co-ordinating all the national resources "along definite lines and with a definite purpose," if we are to meet successfully the keen competition of our times in every department of life. I am afraid I failed to make my Chinese fellow-traveller understand why the British Government should consider it absolutely improper to do for Hong-kong in this matter what the German Government deems it its duty to do for Kiao-chau; but I should have failed still more utterly had I attempted to explain to him the peculiar disabilities of the British character for concerted action, of which the well-meant proceedings of the "China Emergency Committee" afford such a discouraging illustration to those who are interested in the maintenance of British influence as a powerful instrument of progress in the Far East.
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