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from the Report, we are in sorry financial straits. But I must,
I am afraid, make it clear from the start, that the University is
not in a position to spend a cent either on a School of Law or
on any other development of the University, however desirable.
And this brings me to one of the points of the draft scheme
attached. The University Buildings are absolutely chock-full.
There are schemes for extending the buildings, but these will
require a lot of capital. I am, therefore, assuming that, if
the University were in a position, in the course of the next
year or so, to establish a school of law, the school would have
to be accommodated, to start with at any rate, in an office in
the town of Victoria. This would be in many ways the most
convenient situation for the school, but offices in Victoria are expensive. I have included $12,000 a year ($1000 a month) for
rent. This is based on the present rates 30 cents a month a
square foot. The rates may come down; they are always building
new offices in Hong Kong and I can't imagine who is going to
Occupy them all.
We have just had a Salaries Committee and the Committee's
report has been adopted by the University Court though when, if
ever, we shall be able to introduce the new scales I can not say.
The emoluments for a professor suggested by the Salaries Committee,
amount to £1100 per annum, rising by annual increments of £50 a
year to £1450.
We want a first-class man for this school. Robertson,
our Professor of Economics and Political Science, suggests Norman
Bentwich as the sort of man who would do. (Incidentally, a
retired Government officer can continue to draw his pension while
working for this University, for it is a corporation on its own
account and is not maintained out of Colonial Revenues, though we