7
I think we should do our best to
avoid any comparison of the claims of the
Universities of Hong Kong and Malta for this
honour, to the detriment of either, but in view
of Major Vischer's minute it is necessary to
be clear that the withdrawal of Royal patronage
from Hong Kong University would have the worst
possible effects and would be an entirely
undeserved rebuff to the University.
Hong Kong University has, with the
approval of successive Secretaries of State,
been supported by very considerable initial
and annual grants from the Government funds of
Hong Kong, and by a grant of $4 millions from
the Rockefeller Foundation, the latter for the
purpose of establishing a full-time Chair in
Surgery, Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaeocology.
Besides the Faculty of Medicine (the Hong Kong
medical degrees are recognised by the G.M.C.
for registration in Great Britain) the University
has Faculties in Engineering and Arts. It is
a residential University for men and women
with students of various nationalities, of
whom a great majority are Chinese from Hong
Kong, China, Malaya and other Eastern Territories.
In view of the importance of the University's
work in promoting British cultural ideas, and
indirectly genèral British interests in China
and the Far East, it was considered worthy by
the Boxer Indemnity Funds Committee of the
in 1930 considerable grant of £265,000 when H.M.G.
decided to remit further payments of the Boxer
Indemnity by China and to devote the accumulated
funds