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54147/46 Part II. H.Kong.
30th January, 1947.
You have already expressed to me your sympathy with the proposals for the re-establishment of Hong Kong University about which Mayhew wrote to me in a letter numbered L.C.4999/4999/452 of the 20th December. The problem I feel to be as much one for the Foreign office as the Colonial Office. I have now been able to look at the question in relation to the Report of the Scarborough Commission.
That Report, like the Report of the Advisory Committee of Hong Kong University enclosed with my letterof the 24th October, recognizes the importance of the adequate representation in China of British culture and British scholarship as well as the need for facilities for the study of Chinese culture. In view of the size of China, the distance between Peking and Hong Kong, and the differences in character
between the northern and the southern provinces, it would seem that there is ample room for two institutions. Whether or not this is so, I would ask for a
reconsideration of the condition which Mayhew suggested should be attached to a joint approach to the Treasury on the Hong Kong project, namely that any United Kingdom grant to the Hong Kong University would be without prejudice to the financial requirements of the British Council's work in China and of the proposals in the Scarborough report.
To begin with, this condition would delay a decision on the future of the Hong Kong University, which is now urgently needed. The re-opening of the University is held up for this decision - its present
activities
The Rt. Hon. Arnest Bevin, H.P.