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the Foreign Office. His views were outlined in his contributions at our first meeting and have since been amplified in a note circulated as H.K.U.A.C. 16 and in an interesting recent letter to dent that will be reaching you and the Committee before the meeting as HaŭskeOv His main points are that we don't want to waste a lot of money on an institution for China thất will be cold- shouldered by China; that we therefore ought to find out by having suitable enquiries made whether or not the Chinese would welcome a Lugard University; and that if such a visit were made soon the omens are that the reply would be favourable,
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I would suggest under this head that you might begin by asking Prideaux Brune if he would like to make a statement from the Foreign Office end, and then call on Moss. No doubt various political difficulties will emerge from what they say, but the following two or three are worth mentioning specifically:- (1) The risk of Hong Kong presently ceasing to be British is such that it is not worth investing substantial sums in floating a first-class university; (11) because of their demand for Hong Kong, the chinese will boycott the university; (iii) other means of diffusing British cultural influence in China are less expensive, and less precarious in the sense that they could be suspended with much less waste if the political situation presently became impossible, e.g. a large scholarship scheme for bringing Chinese staff and graduates to British universities, or a series of British Council Institutes in the main cities of China. As regards (1), I ruled it out of order at the beginning of our discussion last time, but I think there will be no avoiding discussion this time; it is certainly a very pertinent point. I hope you may find it possible after discussion to see a way round this difficulty provisionally, and if not I suggest the Committee might agree, having discussed it, to return to it at a later stage in their meetings when their repert is a whole is beginning to become clear. The decision on this point after all rests with H.MG; our job is to put up the case for action, and possibly to indicate, if we can Bee our way to that, that it would not all be wasted even if Hong Kong ceased to be British after a generation. Ås regards (ii), this is where Moss suggestion for an exploratory visit, to China, will certainly be made. Prima facie there is a good deal to be said for this. It seems to me that as a committee we could, if we think such a visit desirable, either include a recommdenation in our report, that such a visit is in our view desirable before H.M.G. reach their decision pr, if we are convinced it is o1, some urgency, we could send in a short interim report soon giving reasons to the Secretary of State why we think such, a visit, ought to be considered in the immediate future. It will presumably depend on the discussion whether we recommend either of these courses, or alternatively do not pursue the idea. It may be argued against the suggestion of an immediate visit that no-one ought to go until he knows what type of university activities we have in mind to recommend - in that case it might be best to take the line that the Committee should bear in mind the suggestion for the moment and only decide on it after the third meeting when we are proposing. to discuss the type of university activities which we should like to see launched. Of course if we think Sloss ought to go out in the immediate future in connection with the short range issue under Item 5
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