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This
resignation is dated the 26th September, 1920, but I
know, for I was passing through Hong Kong at the time
on my return from a visit to Japan and China, that for
some time before the resignation was actually accepted,
Sir Charles had ceased to function as Vice Chancellor.
4. It seems that early in 1919 ten University
posts had been referred to the Hong Kong University
Consulting Committee in London for recruitment.
Committee of which Sir Charles Addis is Chairman still
exists (see page 68 of the University Calendar for 1931)
but I have never made any use of it. I believe that
in the University's earliest days the Committee was
useful, but it made, to my knowledge, at least three
serious blunders in connexion with the recruitment of
teachers and others for the University Staff.
5.
It appears from the Minutes of the Senate
that the Consulting Committee met in London on the
18th June and the 8th July 1919, and selected persons
for five of the posts which had been referred to them.
Among the persons selected was a Dr. A.E. Parker who was
put forward for the Chair of Pathology. A minute
recorded by the Senate at a meeting held on the 25th
August, 1919, shows that Professor G.P. Jordan had
authorized the Consulting Committee to make the
appointments without reference to the University and that
the Senate subsequently ratified Professor Jordan's
action. Incidentally the Senate has, under the
University Ordinance, no power of appointment;
consequently the action of that body in ratifying the
action of the Pro-Vice Chancellor in this connexion was
ultra vires.
6.