Enclosure No. 3.
Extract from the South China Morning Post, Hongkong,
of 12th November, 1925.
Speech by His Excellency the Governor at the
Hongkong University on Armistice Day.
H. E. The Governor. His Excellency the Governor, who was received with loud and prolonged applause on rising to speak, said: Mr. Chairman, Mr. vice-Chancellor, ladies and gentle- men. It has been a very real plea- sure to me to come among you this afternoon, and I thank you for the welcome you have extended to Sir
your
Matthew Nathan and myself and for the entertainment you have given us. My interest in University dates from its first bo- ginning, for I was much concern- ed in the negotiations which led to its foundation and its original endowment, and I was present in this Great Hall at its inauguration (Applause). I had also, while in British Guiana, the honour of re- ceiving from your former Chancel· lor, Sir Henry May, an intimation that this University wished to cor- fer upon me its degree of L. L. I). and enquiring whether I could at- tend to receive the degree in per- I had regretfully to reply that I then saw no hope of being able to revisit Hongkong. As, how- ever, I am now once again in Hong- kong and am even your Chancellor, I am glad to have this early oppor- tunity of assuring you of my abid- ing interest in your University, and I hope that if fortune SO far favours me I may be able to dry some of those tears of which your Chairman spoke as being shed by the staff and under-graduates-- (Laughter)—and even perhaps to secure for you a portion of the Boxer indemnity to which you as- pire. (Applause).
son.
Tribute to the Undergraduates.
I also rejoice at having this op- portunity so soon after my arrival of expressing to you my great ap- preciation of the very loyal manner in which you have supported your
Alma Mater throughout the trou bles in which this Colony is at pre- sent involved (Applause). School- boy folly, as I learn with indigna- tion, made the first gesture in the récent strike and deliberately flout ed both education and authority but the undergraduates of the Hongkong University knew better than to participate in a movement so stupid and so isjurious to every- one who has been misled into join- ing it, (Hear hear).
,
In each of its various manifestia-
saw far more deeply into the social and ethical needs of China than i any Bolshevik emissary of to-day, and I commend to you a close study of the Chinese classics as a very wholesome antidote to much pois- onous doctrine which is being spread abroad at the present time from interested motives by men who have at heart neither the good of China nor of mankind at large. (Applause).
Cooperation.
well for us to remember that in the This is Armistice Day, and it is
Great War Britain and China es- poused the same cause (Applause). As for Hongkong, not only during the Great War but for many de- cades before and in all the years that have followed it, this Colony has been animated by feelings of
wards China at large and the Can- the most sincere friendship of
tonese in particular. (Hear hear). The present situation from which Canton and Hongkong alike suffer is in no way due to any act either
tions this strike has done nothing absurdity was the strike but harm, but its most outrageous education.
against After all, what is education? I should like to define it as a process which aims at draw- ing out from every human being the utmost which he or she is cap- able of giving in the cause humanity (Applause). I would lay stress upon this word "humanity,” and remind you of a famous phrase the four in the Chinese classics, "Within (Applause). Anything more alien seas all are brothers."
to the spirit of Confucianism than the recent happenings in South boy strike, I find it difficult to con- China, and particularly the school-
ceive. congratulate you warmly on the at- Allow me, therefore, to titude taken up and maintained throughout these troubles by the undergraduates of the Hongkong University. great encouragement to those who It has been a very
desire to see the cause of higher learning advanced, for it shows you in incipient manhood have already put boyish folly be- hind
that you you,
have the courage of your convictions and the specious fallacies of Bolshevik that you are able to see through propaganda. (Applause). Many centuries ago countrymen Confucius and Mencius your Own fellow
that
to-
on
of commission or omission by the kong; therefore, I hope that Government or the people of Hong-
this auspicious day those now in authority at Canton will reconsider their position and again hold out the hand of friendship to Hong- kong. If they do, we shall clasp cooperation to remedy the harm it warmly and endeavour by cordial
cott. which has been done by the boy-
ing much of you during the coming Gentlemen, I look forward to see-
with your months and to acquainting myself studies and learning something of your aims and aspira-
support in all that tends to ad- of my sympathy and wholehearted tions, and I desire to assure you
vance the welfare of this Univer- sity. (Loud applause).