valuable both to the Colony itself and to the whole
British position in the Far East
•
That the maintenance
of a University institution of high standards is of great
advantage to the inhabitants of Hong Kong needs no
argument.
We and the Foreign Office believe also that such an institution,
at which students from all parts of China and indeed from
other countries in South Eastern Asia can, acquire a British
education will have value for British influence and prestige
which can never be exactly measured but is certainly worth
paying for. On a wide view it is arguable that it is by
such means, by the spread of knowledge of the British way of
life and British habits of thought, that influence in the
world can most effectively be maintained.
It was in such a
spirit that the Hong Kong University was originally founded
by Lugard; it was in the same spirit that plans were prepared
revivification
in 1939 for its extension and unification; and it is with the
same object that we now want to re-create the institution after
its temporary eclipse. I do not want to overstate the case,
9
but the effect on our prestige of failure to re-establish it now
is obvious.
interests.
The financial proposals envisage contributions from the
Colony's own funds, and from Colonial Development and Welfare
funds available for the promotion of higher education in the
Colonies themselves, and also additional contributions from
the United Kingdom Exchequer to correspond with the wider British
Although there are many other calls both on Hong Kong's
own resources for the Colony's rehabilitation and future development,
and on C. D. and W. funds for the promotion of higher education in
the Colonies at large, we have felt justified in proposing very
substantial contributions from those sources in view of the direct
value of the University to Hong Kong itself. There remains, however,
a large balance to be met from other sources on the ground of the
wider considerations described above.
·
Very broadly, what is proposed, therefore, is a fifty-fifty
division between what we may call the Colonial contribution, including
Colonial Development and Welfare funds, and the special United Kingdom contribution, based on the value to the general British position
in