Enclosure No.(1).
94
It is a year since I last spoke to you in these Chan-
cellor's robes. It seems to me and, I dare say, to many of
you more than a year; for the past twelve months have been tightly packed with events some of which it has been extremely
difficult for the mind to sort out under the labels of
desirable or undesirable.
So far as this University is
concerned there is no doubt whatever about the classification
of the Eu Tong Sen gymnasium or the Sum Pak Ming basket-ball court; they are both unmixed blessings for which the gratitude of many goes out, and will continue to go out, to the generous donors. I regret however that there has
occurred no other considerable addition to the list of the
University's benefactions and endowments; nobody has yet
aspired to figure as the Lord Nuffield of Hong Kong. It
would indeed have been unreasonable to expect any great
accretion to our endowments at a time of severe economic
depression, but it is because I am optimistic enough to see signs already of the lifting of that depression that I have been meditating on the University's chances of further future
endowment. If I myself had some millions of dollars to
bequeath (this, I regret to say, is pure hypothesis and not a prospect) I should certainly want to know two things;
whether the institution which I selected for endowment was
being run in a sound, e conomical and businesslike manner and
whether the most was being made of its public utility. Now
it is because I have had doubts expressed to me by responsible
persons on both these points as regards this University, because also its present finances afford room for considerable
concern, and chiefly because the Colonial Government is now
contributing to them annually a sum of no less than three
hundred and fifty thousand dollars that I have decided, as
Governor and with the full approval of my Executive Council,
to appoint a small committee with the following terms of
reference:-