10.
home by Sir. G. Northcote in 1939, to make an appeal in England for the recognition of a University in Hong Kong as something of value in maintaining a friendly relation with China, It was in the interest of China and in the interest of good relations with China that the University was first founded in 1912. No one foresaw the Revolution or the rapid growth and the intense conviction in Chinese nationalism immediately after the Revolution in Canton. University had developed as had been hoped. had served Hong Kong itself. It had provided courses in Arts, Science, Medicine and Engineering for overseas Chinese, mainly from Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and Australia. And though there had always been a trickle of students from the interior of China, its primary function had not been fulfilled.
Nothing in the The University
It was felt in 1939 that something had to be done to draw students from China, because of our experience of the service of a large proportion of our men who were working in China, many of them in places of con- siderable authority and influence and who in various provinces had been centres raliating good feeling towards Great Britain. Such men had been a main support of a pro-British feeling in China. It was felt that if in the difficult days that were foreseen in 1939 there could be
an increased inflow of students from China into Hong Kong for an education based upon British ideals, and British standads, this would be a political gift to China of some valuc and a political investment for Great Britain which might bring an ample return. He had had an opportunity a month or so before returning home, in 1939, of talking over these matters with a number of Chinese Ministers. General Chiang Kai Shek gave the most genuine and grateful approval of the project of an expansi n of the University of Hong Kong into an institution worthy of Great Britain's place in the world an institution which could hold up its head in comparison with the rather opulent educational institutions endowed by the Americans in various parts of China. General Chiang Kai Shek rumarked that Great Britain's relations with China, friendly as they had been for a century, hal in the main been broud on the dealings of merchants, which perhaps was not the best way of laying a foundation · for permanent goodwill. It was now time to establish the right kind of relations on a mutual knowledge and respect of our diverse civilisations. That was the point of view and attitude of mind that he had encountered in all the people with whom he had come into contact in Chungking. The Colonial Office and the Foreign Office had both approved the general line of policy. The point had been renched for approrching the Treasury when war broke out and there was an end to the matter for the time being. The Secretary of State had written that he entirely approved of what the University authorities had in mind and hoped that the matter could be re- Opened, not at the beginning, but from the stage it had reached
in 1939.
He thought this gave them an opportunity of reviving the project of 1912. He still believed that that
project