130
II
Arguments for the Committee's recommendations.
(a) Education of
British inspira- tion at homo.
(b) for good
relations
with China.
The origin of the University
1.
A University was established in Hong Kong in 1911 on the foundation of an existing chartered College of Medicine to make further provision for education in the colony but also to become a "place for Higher Education whore Chinese youths can remain under the influence of their own parents and guardians ... subject to the strong control which Chinese cpinion exerts upon young men, instead of being adrift in a foreign country where a liberty unknown to students in the East is allowed to undergraduatos". Fear of liberty for students, at home or abroad, nowadays, takes a lifferent shape. It is still to be said, however, that a synthesis of Chinese and Western ideas and influences in the minds of young undergraduates is probably more
readily attained in a University which is an integral part of a society basically Chinese, though long and deoply permeated by British ideas and by a knowledge and appreciation of British institutions.
As
2. To achieve this ond and also with a broader underlying conception Lord Lugard founded an institution "for the promotion of Learning
the conferring of degrees, the development and formation of the character of students of all races, nationalities and creeds, and the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring Country of China". the Memorandum of the Colonial to the Far Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet (H.K.0.A. C. 3) points out "The conception of the University as a vehicle for the establishment of good relations between Great Britain and China was always foremost in the mind of the founder, Lord Lugarû, who saw it as a contre from which would, emanate an influence profoundly affecting a nation numbering one fourth of the population of the world". Evidence that this conception was shared by Chinese authorities is found in the fact that one of the major contributions to the original endowment of the University was subscribed in Canton with the encouragement of the Governor of the Province of Kui ang tung who expressed his strong approval of the Project when forwarding the gift. Further ovidonce was the willingness in these sarly days of most of the Provincial Governments of China to meet the cost of the students selected by their Education Departments for University studies in Hong Kong. A
numbor