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CHINA REPORT
other British scholars on the staff of Hong Kong University, or of one of the Christian Universities in China, might also offer their services.
We feel that the suggestion is an interesting and important one and well worthy of consideration. We are not in a position, however, to determine whether the obvious difficulties of organising such a "School" could be overcome. It is essentially a proposal which an active local committee in China might be asked to investigate and we therefore suggest that it be referred to the sub-committee in China, the creation of which is recommended below.
(b) Research Fellowships.
We recommend the foundation of a few Research Fellowships to be held by Chinese graduates in England and also (occasionally) by British graduates in China. The fellowships should be granted to advanced students who have already distinguished themselves in particular lines of research or have given evidence that they are likely to distinguish themselves hereafter if given the benefit of a course of further study in Great Britain or in China as the case may be. We do not wish to discourage the foundation of scholarships for carefully- selected Chinese undergraduate students in Great Britain, but we are definitely of opinion that the small amount available for the subsidising of students out of the fund at the Committee's disposal could best be utilised in the manner indicated.
On the general question of the advantages and disadvantages of sending immature youths from an Eastern to a Western country for their education, we invite attention to a paper read by Sir Thomas H. Holland, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edin- burgh, on July 10th last, before the Congress of Universities of the Empire. In this paper he argued very forcibly that undergraduates from foreign countries are handicapped in their work by the distrac- tions of a strange social as well as a new academic atmosphere. He added that mainly to this cause the numerous instances of failure could generally be traced. He drew attention to the erroneous but too common assumption that an undergraduate from overseas cannot usually get as good a general education in his own country as he can in Britain; and he pointed out that so far from university life in England having the necessary effect of widening the mind of an immature overseas student, it more often confirms his national prejudices, while the new social environment hampers his academic
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RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE DELEGATION
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Sir Thomas laid stress, however, on his belief that the situation quite different for the post-graduate student, who has a well- defined specific group of subjects to tackle ". Such a student, he pointed out, is not expected to take part in under-graduate club-life; he meets only the teaching staff or senior students of his own specialised type; and his experiences tend to the increase of international friendliness. He added that post-graduate and specialised students from overseas frequently compare very favourably, in achievement as well as in intellectual energy and industry, with their British contemporaries.
In these views we concur, and we have reason to believe that they are held to an increasing extent in educational circles in China. For example, a leading article in the semi-official Chung-yang Jib Pao- a Nanking daily newspaper-in its issue of June 11th last, made pointed comments on the comparative failure of the system of sending immature Chinese students to study abroad; and similar criticisms are frequently heard in other quarters.
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The views expressed by Sir Thomas H. Holland and others are in harmony with those arrived at by the members of the Willingdon Delegation in 1926; and our recommendations regarding Research Fellows is in substantial agreement with that made in Part X. (xii.) of the Willingdon Report. (See pp. 22-23 and 150-151 of the "Report of the Advisory Committee", China No. 2, 1926.) Reference was there made to the general view as regards subsidising of students to be educated in Great Britain; that the subsidised students should be few in number, should be post-graduate and carefully selected ". The Willingdon Delegation therefore recommended the subsidising not only of post-graduate students but also of mature scholars of recognised standing", and expressed the hope that the new outlook and new insight acquired by those maturer minds which cannot be easily denationalised" might in some way contribute towards the training of future leadership in China.
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The recommendations of the members of the Willingdon Delega- tion were in minor details somewhat different from our own. They proposed that provision be made both for fellowships and for scholar- ships; but as the scholarships which they contemplated were for post-graduate research students, they differ only in name from the
We prefer the term fellowships suggested by us.
fellowships scholarships", as the former term seems to emphasise the fact that they are intended not for schoolboys but for mature students who have already entered upon and shown promise of future distinc- tion in specialised lines of research. The fellowships" which the travelling Willingdon Delegation proposed to endow were
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