20
Copy of Memorandum submitted by Lord Lugard to the Universities China
Committee on
HONGKONG UNIVERSITY.
Origin and Aims. 1.
5.5
Twenty years ago as Governor of Hongkong I was deeply
impressed with the immense effect which was being produced
in China by the returned Chinese graduates from America.
1). Politically. Imbued with ultra-democratic theories
of a Western type they inculcated the Chinese youth in the
Colleges with revolutionary ideas, and in my view were the
main cause of the Revolution and 20 years of subsequent
Civil War.
2). Economically.
Graduates from American Universities
with engineering degrees were eagerly sought after for the
Railways and every other kind of Public Works which at that
time were being feverishly pushed forward. These young men were familiar only with American methods and used only
American standards and designs.
orders were placed with American firms of which they had confident knowledge.
Naturally, therefore, all
America encouraged Chinese students to go to American
Universities. They were made much of there. The Boxer
Indemnity was remitted and used for this purpose.
The British feeling was the reverse. Not only were
Chinese discouraged from going to England, but there was (and still is to some extent, I am told), a definite feel-
ing against the higher education of Chinese, due largely to a fear that they would supplant British.
So disastrous did this state of things appear to me
alike as regards British influence for good in China, and
from the point of view of our trade, that I took up the
project of a University, though the majority of British
opinion was opposed to it. Its salient characteristics
were:- It was residential; English was the medium of in- struction; Chinese from China and elsewhere were welcomed; it was affiliated to Oxford and Cambridge and students were discouraged from going to England until they had graduated