3 -
to rely on any grant from U.K. funds in the future.
217
All that
the Treasury will agree to at present is to review the position
at some later date. Dr. Sloss said that this was a great pity
because he thought that if they were able to say in Hong Kong
that H.M.G. were behind the University, even if only to the
ken
extent of a to contribution, they would probably be able
£100,000 * $200,000 to raise $1,000 to £2,000 by voluntary subscription among the
Chinese. These voluntary subscriptions would not be forth-
coming otherwise, because the people felt doubtful about the
future of Hong Kong and also the currency of the Colony.
for the former, was=suggnatos that it was suggested that
it could be said with confidence that whatever the future of
the Colony, the University was likely to remain British.
Sloss said that this line had been tried but it had not
succeeded. On the currency point, he said that there was
danger that Hong Kong might leave the sterling area and that
the request for her to do so might come from here, since
at present sho representa a drain on our dollar resources,
Dr.
It was evident from the discussion that Dr. 3loss had
been thinking of the possibility of restoring the University
to its prewar 1942 standard (and giving up for the moment the
idea of re-establishing it on an extended basis), since he said that he had worked out that in order to do this, the
University would require some $700,000 revere a year in
excess of any estimate of reveme z which he thought he could
count upon from existing resources, and that this would not
building
cover rehabilitation buildings and the re-equipment of the
University. He agreed that the estimates in the Committee's
Report were very badly out. Meanwhile the University is
flourishing on a very limited scale indeed.
As a result of discussion with Dr. Sloss a personal
telegram has now gone to the Governor offering to approach
the Treasury for a small token grant towards the cost of the
/re-establishment