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in 1914, the munificent donations expected by the Founders might have been forthcaning. The attempt to maintain a satisfactory medical school and the minimum provision for other branches of studies inevitably ended in an insolvency only to be remedied by a large Government grant in 1922. Partial endowments were provided from Rockefeller Trust and Boxer Indemnity Funds and local Chinese beneficences made more adequate provision for Chinese studies but even with a greatly increased grant from the Colonial Government in 1939, the University still remained inadequately staffed and provided. (ii) Nationalist feeling became for a time anti-British and the chief sufferer was Hong Kong. New Universities sprang up in almost every Province in China, the best of them well staffed and well equipped. Pressure on students to study in their own universities diverted but never quite arrested the flow of students from China.
The
(iii) The cost of living, reflected in the payment of commercial and Government salaries and wages has always been much higher in Hong Kong than in interior China. disparity of costs may decrease but it is unlikely to disappear. Revolutionary China made it a policy to pay low salaries to University teachers as well as to Govern- ment officials. So long as a University in Hong Kong has to draw a very large part of its staff from overseas its expenditure will remain, by Chinese standards, very high. If students are to be drawn from China a generous provision of scholarships and bursaries will be necessary. 5. His Majesty's Government in both the Foreign and. Colonial Office considered the recommendations of a Hong Kong University Committee which reported in 1939. It was satisfied of the soundness of what may be called the political aim of the University and recognized the need of Treasury support if it were to be fulfilled. This committee has gone over the whole ground afresh and supports the Foreign Office view that "the University is a valuable instrument for propagating British ideals and spreading British influence in China and that it should be given all the support and assistance possible in increasing its usefulness in respect. " The Foreign Office Memorandum adds "The outbreak of war made it impracticable however, to pursue the question of financial assistance and expansion." The war being ended, this Committee is strongly. of opinion that a policy of "financial assistance and expansion" is now needud.
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and
6. Under its Terms of Reference the Committee is asked to recommend measures for the reestablishment of an institution of higher education adequate to meet the needs of the Colony. Consideration of this point at once raised another question - Is a University, in fact, needed for the Colony of Hong Kong? Between the years 1929 and 1939 about one third of the University' students were drawn from Malaya and the Dutch Indies, hereafter such students are likely to go to the Malaya University. Between one quarter and one third came from China proper, though a large part of these were Cantonese who had attended schools in Hong Kong for the better teaching of English. In all in these years the University gave facilities for higher education to about 2000 students domiciled in Hong Kong or educated at Hong Kong schools about half of the total for those years. Apart from a foundation contribution that came from Canton, the Colony received no grant or assistance from any of the territories from which its students were drawn.
17.