Manch
HONG-KONG'S BRITISH INSTITUTE
Strengthening Anglo-Chinese Relations
By D. J. Sloss, former Vice-Chancellor of Rangoon University and Hong-Kong University
The Scarbrough Commission in- vestigated very thoroughly the depth and extent of our ignorance of the people, languages, and cultures of the countries of Eastern Europe, the Middle and Far East. Its report was published in 1947. It imposed on the universities a duty, cheerfully enough undertaken, to extend provision for the study of the languages and cul- tures of China and her neighbours. (It also made recommendations about ; the study of the Slavonic cultures.) It showed that much had been done in Far Eastern studies by British scholars, mostly working in isolation. But the universities had been able to do relatively little either to convince people of their lamentable ignorance or to repair it.
The report argued that knowledge of the Far Eastern civilisations was now a pressing need both in univer- sity studies and in popular education. It pointed out how few real experts in Far Eastern matters Great Britain had in comparison with the United States. It deplored that in China the educated classes. frequently widely knowledgeable and appreciative of our literature, thought, and political achievement, resented what seemed to them to be our contemptuous esti- mate, except in vague word, of their culture. The report also pointed out how influential the Chinese "intellec- tuals"
were in the formulation of public policy, SEEKING A CENTRE
would still be a host of studies per- taining to the China south of the Yangtze that could more profitably be based on Hong-Kong. In any case, whether the work there is to be tem- porary or permanent, it can only be undertaken successfully if there is the closest possible liaison with, at least, the universities in Great Britain that are concerned with Chinese studies. Co-operation with America and the Dominions would certainly follow. Experience has proved that University of Hong-Kong is more handicapped by intellectual isolation than by geographical isolation.
the
But two questions arise and must have some sort of answer. What is the urgency of the proposal for the institute and may not the "iron curtain" descend and cut off any such institute from China? The urgency lies in the need to establish relations with the new China that now is taking shape; and such relations will the more speedily be established the more we know both of the China of the past and of to-day. The opportu- nities promised by the better provi- sion for Chinese studies in Great Britain will be restricted and limited until the correlative organisation in China is actively at work. THe fruits of SYMPATHY
are
And what of the "iron curtain"? It may clatter down in our faces, but should fear of this make us sit with folded hands? We know sufficient of the new Government now to justify the hope that it will be a genuine The universities of London, Oxford, that bankers, merchants, missionaries coalition, and we have the evidence and Cambridge have already done a are ready to co-operate with it. The great deal to develop Far Eastern. Government is predominantly Com- and particularly Chinese, studies. munist, of course, but there Many of the changes proposed by the views in important places to justify enough men and women of liberal commission already have been made. a hope that friendly relations will be and unquestionably Chinese studies possible. Mao Tse-tung is to be are more widely pursued than ever judged only by his speeches and by before. But a most important recom- his astonishing achievement; personal mendation of the commission has not knowledge of him has become harder yet been acted on. It was that English-speaking Research Institute more a messianic isolation. The new to gain as he has developed more and should be established in Peking, Prime Minister, Chou En-lai, was financed through non-Governmental well known to Englishmen in Chung- agencies and controlled by a board king when he served there as liaison of trustees representing non-Govern- officer between the Communists and mental academic bodies in Great the Kuomintang Government. Britain, the Dominions, the United knows life outside China; he is a man He States, and China." The committee of a keen intelligence-a “ of the commission that dealt with man.". One remembers his hesitant conversible Far Eastern matters had considered but remarkably precise and accurate and rejected the alternative proposal English. that the institute should be located
CL
an
There surely is hope, too, in the
in Hong-Kong. Even in Hong-Kong writers and thinkers in this Govern- itself it was generally agreed that ment who are grouped round__Mar- Peking was the more appropriate shal Li Chi-sum, a veteran of war place because of its historical and of civil administration, of a eminence. its libraries, and its tradi- liberal mind tion of art and scholarship. But the wisdom. To assume that we are per- and great natural changes that have occurred since the manently shut out from China would commission reported compel recon- be untimely and foolish. There are sideration of this point. It is clear political issues between us that will that a choice has now to be made have to be dealt with at the highest between an early start, that can best levels, and there is the difficulty of be made in Hong-Kong, and long adjusting our policy with the Ameri- delay.
can, which, so similar in intent is An institutini
ì more urgent need! liable to he diff
16
78
ardian
1. NOV 1945
MR Sideballen.
MR 10 &. J. Wallace
MR R.-J. Harvey.