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funds which you had undertaken to contribute.
Eventually,
the Hospital Committee declined the offer, mainly, we think,
for the reason that they came to see that its acceptance
would involve the expenditure there of all your funds,
leaving nothing for the parent institution.
A proposal to house the Hongkong Extension in a
furnished house, No. 19 Stratford Place, was now favourably
considered. The initial outlay would not have been great,
but the large dimensions of the house made it probabls that
the cost of upkeep would be high. Negotiations for the
lease dragged on for a long time, during which it was
increasingly borne in upon us that prices generally were
likely to rise still further and, in particular, the price
of drugs and other medical necessaries and we became
apprehensive lest it might prove difficult to keep the
expenditure within the limits of your contribution.
This
apprehension was apparently not shared by the other members
of the Hospital Committee who, in their desire to take
this house, seemed indifferent to the prospect of all your
funds, and even more, being spent upon it. It was
against this latter prospect that it now became necessary
to provide. For this reason.
Hongkong's name upon the