2.96
106
and colleges in the course of our tour and found, as was to be ex- pected because of the origin of the funds with which they had been endowed, that the universities were organised largely on American lines and that the members of the staffs were mostly graduates of American universities. It was an exception to find a professor or lecturer who had been trained in Great Britain, We visited a large engineering college where all the laboratory equipment had been given by American machinery manufacturers, and when we came to the library we saw only American engineering journals. Students educated under such conditions, cannot fail to have a definitely American orientation and to be comparatively ignorant of the great British engineering industries and their products. In this connection we may quote the following observations made to us in a report from the Engineering sub-Committee of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce :-
In China, more perhaps than in any country in the world, a generous expenditure on attracting young Chinese of the right age, education and stamp to our schools and workshops for a few years, would be repaid manifold after these young men had returned and taken up their various positions in the life and development of the country.
Time and again important electrical business has gone to the United States at prices British firms could quite well meet, because the Chinese engineer, with the chief voice in deciding or advising on the placing of the order, happened to be American-trained. If the engineer in question is likely to be responsible for the running of the machinery to be ordered -for example, a steam turbo-generator he will plump almost every time for the American plant, as he feels not only a sentimental interest in the country where he got his engineering training, but also a greater confidence in being able to operate an American plant of a type with which he feels somewhat more familiar.
Orders are steadily being lost to local British firms, and consequently to British engineering works at home, owing to the absurdly few Chinese engineers who have had their training in British engineering shops. In view of the above-mentioned facts, we feel it to be a matter of most urgent necessity to bring about a more intimate cultural relationship between Great Britain and China. Not only is this desirable for the future development of British trade, but we believe it will be of the greatest possible benefit to China herself.
223. China, with her great population and the oldest civilisation in the world, is now passing through the agony of a vast trans- formation in her political, social and industrial life. The urge to this transformation is coming at the present time very largely from the industrial civilisation of the United States and from the Soviet Republic of Russia. The United States has grown from a British Colony, comparatively unimportant in world affairs, to its present position in the short space of two hundred years, and with its remarkable record of progress it's people accept with avidity the rapid changes imposed upon its culture by the march of science and invention. The Soviet Government has deliberately destroyed the culture of old Russia and endeavoured to make a completely new beginning. These two countries, therefore, present the
107
greatest possible antithesis to the older culture of the Chinese Empire, and the reactions brought about by their influence in modern China are correspondingly violent and extreme.
224. We are strongly of the opinion that it would have been well both for China and for ourselves if more of the young men who are now playing such an important part in Chinese affairs had been educated in England so that some of the qualities of English industrial life might have found greater consideration and fuller expression in modern China. Much that was best in the old Chinese civilisation which has already suffered, or is threatened with destruction, might then have been preserved, and the changes which are now taking place might have been accomplished with less pain and greater benefit to all classes of the people.
225. With these considerations before us, we feel that steps should be taken at the earliest possible opportunity to devise means whereby Chinese students can be attracted in considerable numbers to British universities and workshops, and the intellectual life of Great Britain and China thereby be brought into closer contact. We have referred (para. 180) to various suggestions which have been made for securing this in the case of engineering students. Other obvious methods would be the provision of scholarships for Chinese students at British universities and interchange of professorships between British and Chinese universities on similar lines to the interchange which takes place between universities in Europe and America.
We suggest that the Department of Overseas Trade should call a conference to consider the situation, and to this conference, in addition to the Government officials, there should also be invited representatives of British universities and business men inter- ested in China trade.
297