phones:
D.M.S. C.A. 39659 A.D.M.S. C.A. 39660
Secy.
General
39600 39683
4:12.
C.A.A. Medical Branch,
Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Bldg.
Hong Kong.. „idarch, 23,..19409
Dear Miss Ruston,
I am sure you will be glad to hear that the long planned ceremony of the Conferring of Medical Degrees by the Emergency Committee was at last achieved yesterday afternoon in the ruins of the University Great Hall. It was an impressive ceremony, in the austere setting of the roofless and looted skeleton of the Hall, but we decided that there could be no more fitting place. About 180 people were present, including many members of the University Court and representatives of the Services and other bodies, both Chinese and British. Mr. Hazlerigg awarded the diplomas on behalf of the Committee, and the Commander-in-Chief gave an excellent address. Tea was served afterwards in the Cloisters, and the Library was thrown open for inspection. It was altogether a very happy little ceremony, and all the comment I heard was most favourable. To me personally, it was a very gratifying occasion, for I felt as I scanned the names of the 33 graduates and thought of their strangely varied experiences during these last four years, that the efforts which we commenced on their behalf in 1942 had at last come to fruition. You played a very large part in these efforts, and I should like, on behalf of the new graduates, to express to you a very deep sense of appreciation for all that you have done. I am enclosing a copy of the Press report of yesterday's proceedings, which gives in full the speeches made by Mr. Hazlerigg and the Commander-in-Chief.
I also enclose a specimen copy of the Diploma which we had printed and of the Order of Proceedings. I am glad to say that the University Seal reached here just in time, and that it was impressed upon all the diplomas,
The two diplomas of Drs. Cheung Kông Ho and Yap Jin Ya are being despatched to you by the hand of Father Joy and should reach you with this letter.
I am glad to hear that Yap is trying for his Primary F.R.C.S., and hope he is successful. I expect you heard that my former assistant, Dr. Daphne Chun, successfully passed the examination in January of this year, and was the first Chinese to gain the M.R.C.O.G. when she took it last year.
I have been in close touch with Mr. Sloss over the future of the University, and I still hope that we may be able to start some first year courses in October. It would be possible to start Arts classes without any equipment, and for other faculties (e.g. Medicine and Science) to concentrate on work which does not require much equipment, (including extra English instruction) until the apparatus arrives in the early New Year. I think we should meet unusual conditions with emergency methods. If we do not open we shall lose a good deal of prestige when compared with other Universities in China which have opened, and we shall also lose students from Hong Kong who will undoubtedly go to Chinese Universities if we cannot offer them anything here.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
Miss A.M. Ruston, Colonial Office, Downing Street, LONDON, S.W.1.
Garden H
Lt.-Col. Gordon King.
Ky