RECEIVED
10 FED (38
C. O. REGY
240
3
10, Manchester Street,
London, W. 1.
7th February, 1938.
Arthur Mayhew, Esq., C.I.E.,
Secretary,
Colonial office Education Committee,
Caxton House,
Tothill Street, S.W. 1.
My dear Mayhew,
Herewith a cutting from the "South China Morning Post" which contains a verbatim report of the speeches made both by the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor at the last Con- gregation of the University of Hong Kong. I thought that you might wish to see what the Chancellor said about the Committee's report.
May I just add something which I forgot to say when I met you and Gent the other day. When the Committee's report was circulated to members of the University Council, Grayburn, the General Manager, of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, de- livered this ultimatum. He said When Sir Andrew Caldecott asked me to allow Morse, the Bank's chief accountant, to take upon himself the onerous duties of the Treasurership of the University. I did so, realising what an additional burden this would place upon an already overworked man but in the hope that Morse would be able to do something not only to straighten up the finances of the University but to deal with certain aspects of the University's administration which were exciting unfavourable comment among the commercial community of Hong Kong. Morse has given up an immense amount of time to the University's finances and he has recently under press- ure from the Governor agreed to serve on a Special Committee. If the Committee's report be not handled seriously by the University the Bank will ask that its representation on the Finance Committee, Council and Court be removed by statute and Mr. Morse will be instructed by me to resign the Treasurer- ship of the University. This may all sound very tyrannical but I had to take Hong Kong as I found it. I can only assure you once again that if last summer, when the Court of the University had received the report without question, merely passing it on to the Council, Smith, acting under pressure from
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