148
the platinum vessels of the Physics Department and various other articles of value, includi..g the Chancellor's and Vice-Chancellor'u
The robes, by depositing them in places of relative safety, official seal of the University was salvaged from the Colony and is at present in the safe of the British Embassy in Chungking,
Final examinations were in progress at the time of the outbreak of war, and at an emergency meeting of the Senate held after the hostilities were over it was decided to confer Var-tine Degices on students of the various faculties who would reasonably have been e pected to graduate by May, 1942. Other students were given certificates stating what studies they had completed, in the hope that they might make their way to Universities in Free Chin and there continuo their studies. Of the 570 students enrolled in the University no fewer than 346 eventually migrated to Free China, of whom 243 are at the present date continuing their studies in 17 different Chinese Üniversities and Colleges. Under a special arrangement which had the approval and authority of H.., the. British Ambassador to China, many of these students, who are cut off from all sources of support, have been receiving temporary financial assistance in. the form of loans for travel, clothing and other necessary expenses.
30 GERAL CONSIDERATICHS AFFECTING THE RECONSTITUTION
OF THE DIVERSITY AS A HOLE.
In the view of the Vice-Chancellor, Mr. D. J. 3loss, who is still under Japanese co.finement in Stanley Camp, Hong Kong, it is necessary to decide whether the future scope of the University is to be mainly a local one, and limited chieply to the training of subordlante officers for the Hong Kong ivil Service, or whether it is to count as an expression
In the of British policy towards China and the Far East. past the University has existed without subsidy from the Imperial Goverment and has been too poor adequately to fill the wider function, yet too large and cumbersone conanically to fulfil a purely local purpose. It is essential to consider and Ccide for which of those two fonotions the future University is to be planned.
(a) University with Limited Local Scope. The requirements
for such a University can be sumarised very briefly £3:
a Medical School
an Engineering School
a Teachers' Training College
Possibly a School of Agriculture and Forestry, Staff and, where necessary, new buildings to maintain these activities should not constitute more than a mouorate charge on local goverment income. In the event of such an organication being adopted, it is not the view of the Vice- Chancellor that allowance should be made for training officera for the traits Settlements, Burna, India, etc. These spheres should provide their own facilities on siciler Les at the ir own expense.
(b) University as an Expression of British Policy towards.
China and the Far Best. The original terms of the Ordinance, particularly the aim of maintaining a "good under- standing with the neighbouring country of China" sugrested this
wider scope for the University of Hong Kong. To be effective, however, the University must compete in excellence with other
the educational institutions in China and the Far East, e.£.
/Peking