167
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write fluently and simply would add greatly to the value of our graduates in China. Scholarly studies in the Classics need not be neglected and can well be carried on in consonance with modern critical methods, but, at this day, the humbler duty of encouraging general literacy in simple modern Chinese may be the higher function of the School.
(iii) We recommend also:
(a) the employment of members of the staff of the Chinese Department of the University to assist the training of teachers of Chinese and of teachers in such subjects as History and Geography through the medium of Chinese by modern methods;
(b) that the University should hold refresher courses for Chinese teachers in Hong Kong and South China;
(c) the institution of compulsory courses over a period of two years for at least one hour a week for students of professional subjects, in order that they may be equipped for work in China: the course to be compulsory, but certificates of efficiency to be issued only to candidates whose work progresses satisfac- torily;
(d) that the University should consider the in- stitution of Chinese classes for non-Chinese students especially those following profes- sional courses.
(iv) Our final view after discussion with the Professor of Chinese was that the chief attraction of the Chinese Department for students from places outside of Hong Kong, lies in the possibility of its close co-operation with the Western Depart- ments, particularly the Department of English.
リ
Fung Ping Shan
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Chapter X.
Libraries.
58. The University Library is at present divided
into three sections:-
(i) the General Library, including some science
libraries housed in the Departments;
(ii) the Hankow Library;
(iii) the Fung Ping Shan Chinese Library.
59. The Fung Ping Shan Library is a well designed and well equipped building given, with a Library. small endowment, by a Chinese merchant of Hong Kong and is a worthy memorial of a public spirited man. The Library is open to the general public.
Hankow Library.
60. The Hankow Collection was purchased at a very low price in 1932, from the Hankow Club. It is said to be the completest collection of books on China in English and other European languages. A condition of sale was that the library should not be dispersed. The University, however, has never been in a position to add to it either earlier works or works recently published.
General 61. The General Library consists of 45,450 Library. accessions (including catalogued pamphlets), of which 5,060 are bound volumes of scientific periodi- cals. Except in periodicals the Library is every- where weak. Essential books in all subjects are lacking because no initial sum was ever provided It bas to create a nucleus of a general library. grown by the addition, year by year, of the minimum of books immediately required in con- nexion with courses of teaching. Each major De- partment, at present, has only about $120 a year to spend on new books. Any development of teaching, especially in the Faculty of Arts, will demand considerable extension of the Library.
62. There is in Hong Kong no large Public Library, and serious readers are given access to This has the General Library of the University. been a concession greatly appreciated by refugee Chinese scholars, 104 of whom have been allowed to use the Library since the outbreak of hostilites.
A