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will deal with America, and advise his employers to order American goods and machines. This will happen more and more, as the
number of students returned from America increases, and if
we do not do something to counteract this influence, we shall
within a measurable time see the whole of trade of South China pass into American hands.
What is needed is British Propaganda.
Hong Kong spends $60,000 a year in propaganda work, but I
an doubtful as to its value; and in any case, this sum or any
that we could afford to spend, is too small to be of much use.
To my mind, the only sound method is to meet the Americans on their own ground of education. Get the young men of the South trained in English ways, at English schools, and accustom them to English text books, and English machines, and we shall recover much of the ground that we have lost.
Hong Kong does its best. The University can be made a most effective centre for spreading British influence in South China. Its engineering faculty is excellent, and we ought to be able to train all the engineers for China. At present, however, there is a difficulty in getting as many students from Kwang Tung as we should have, because there are not enough boys whose knowledge
of English is sufficient to enable them to take a University course with advantage; and unless they have been trained in American schools, And if they have been trained in American schools,
they are inclined to go to American Universities.
It is, therefore, highly desirable to encourage the existing British Schools in South China, and to establish new ones.
The ordinary Chinese parent would prefer, other things being equal, that his son should be at a University where he is not wholly cut off from Chinese life; and boys from British schools will come to the University of Hong Kong in large numbers.
Hong Kong has made a fairly large grant to Holy Trinity, Canton, a (C.M.S. school)- and we have been considering a grant to the Haigh (Wesleyan) College at Fatsham: but our means are limited, and this small Colony cannot compete with the UIS.A.
It is most desirable that money should be put up by Great