TELEPHONE
ABINGER HAMMER 79.
STATION
COMSHALL, S.R.
44
117
LITTLE PARKHURST,
ABINGER COMMON,
NI DORKING,
SURREY.
20th July, 1931.
Dear Mr. Mayhew,
I see that on the Agenda for Thursday a copy of the D.O.T. Report of the Economic Missi on to the Far East has been circulated, together with a Minute by the Official Secretary saying that Lord Passfield would be glad to know whether the Committee can suggest any special line of en- quiry etc., regarding the Hong Kong University. I am, as I think you know, the representative of that University on the Universi ties Bureau, and I am also a Member of the China Universities Committee, and I should be extremely glad to avail myself of this opportunity of putting up a short Memorandum on the subject; but I have during the last few days been entirely engrossed with the Parliamentary Committee on East Africa that I have not time to do so be- fote Thursday. I
hope therefore that the consideration of this question will, as suggested by the Chairman be de- ferred till the 30th Meeting
•
In brief the position is that £265,000 of the China Indemnity has been assigned to the University, of which £15,000 is to pay off a debt, and the interest on the remainder, viz., £10,000 at most, would be available for the University. This will be almost completely ab- sorbed by absolutely necessary increases in the salary of the staff owing to the phenomenal fall in the value of the silver currency, and similar essential requirements.
It has been the desire of the University since it was founded in March 1912 to have a Faculty for Chinese Studies in the hope that it would be enabled to train men who would later occupy important positions in the Govern- ment of China and the Provinces, and great hopes have been built on the Boxer Indemnity. Such a Chair would, it is estimated cost about £5,000 a year, i.e., the interest on £100,000, and the Hong Kong Government, which has had
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