COPY.
Eveloeuse No. 1
4th February, 1926.
247
Dear Lord Willingdon,
Welcome to China.
Mr. Barton will hand this to you on your arrival
in Shanghai.
Forgive my importunacy.
but the atmosphere of the Far East to-day is so charged
with misunderstanding that I do want you to have from the start direct information about the University of Hongkong.
I also venture to repeat with all the emphasis of which a
I had letter permits and a cable does not, how grateful
almost said relieved - I should be, if you could see your
way to paying us a visit, before you go to Pekin.
A
•
2. It is sometimes suggested that the Government of Hongkong started the University on their own initiative
and for their own purposes. It is therefore, it is argued, up to the Government of Hongkong to pay for their expensive child. "It is a Hongkong venture, let Hongkong see it through".
It is true that Sir Frederick Lugard was keen on having
University in Hongkong, but when the project was first mooted,
he made it quite clear that the revenues of the Colony could
not undertake any responsibility for carrying the scheme
through. In March 1908
opened
-
-
4 years before the University wai
Sir Frederick explained to the principal residents
of Hongkong that, though he was ready to recommend to the
Secretary of State the gift of an adequate site, and though,
if the project succeeded the Government would necessarily be
closely connected with the University's control, he, as head of the Hongkong Government could accept no responsibility, on behalf of the Hongkong Government, for the University's
maintenance. The University must in fact be financially
independent.