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Politics in Schools.
86. One of the most serious and significant features of the recent disturbance is the part played by schoolboys and students, to which brief reference has been made in para. 5.
It is very necessary to learn from these events how to prevent the corrup- tion of schoolboys in future, and particularly their attempts to interfere in politics. It was the students who started the strike in Hongkong; and it was the students who created the shooting incident at Shameen as in Shanghai. The Hongkong school- boys were moved to their turbulent behaviour by some students from Shanghai. These students were said to have put up at the offices of the notorious " Chung Kwok San Man Po," and they had a clear ten days to do all the mischief they could. So success- ful were their efforts that practically all the boy-schools were more or less contaminated. When the trouble began, the University was fortunately in vacation, but it must be said to their credit that those students who were in residence in the hostels behaved well. The same praise should be accorded to St. Paul's and St. Stephen's Girls' Schools which were the last of the schools to close, all their girls showing pluck in attending regularly in spite of personal threats at a time when many boys skulked off. When St. Paul's Girls' School was closed, some of the senior girls offered their services, through me, to the Post- master-General, and although the offer was thankfully declined on account of their delicate physique they were very useful to our Propaganda Bureau, in which they were employed for about a month in work requiring copying in large Chinese character.
87. Now, let us try to trace the cause or causes of the present state of affairs. From the first year of the Chinese Republic schoolboys and students in China have been arrogating to them- selves the right to assist in the government of the country, and they have been encouraged by persons who had their own ends to serve. In so far as our own schools are concerned, there can be no doubt that to a very large extent the ground had been pre- pared for them for this trouble, as during the last two years or so very undesirable literature had been introduced into the schools, particularly the vernacular boy-schools, and some of the Chinese teachers had not been altogether innocent in this respect.
88. Recommendations: Obviously the first remedy is an increased watchfulness in the schools. Special care should be exercised in the supervision of the vernacular schools in par- ticular, for these can the more easily become breeding-grounds of sedition. The teachers should be carefully chosen and supervised for this reason.
89. It should be impossible for propaganda to get so long_a start before it comes to the knowledge of those in charge. In future, as soon as a political or industrial trouble is brewing in the Colony, the school authorities should do everything possible to prevent their boys participating in the agitation. If necessary, the schools might be closed at once.
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The
90. To my mind we should get to the root of the evil. Chinese education in Hongkong does not seem to be all that it should be. The teaching of Confucian ethics is more and more. neglected, while too much attention is being paid to the material-
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