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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.882/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Politics in Schools.
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86. One of the most serious and significant features of the recent disturbance is the part played by schoolboys and students, It is very to which brief reference has been made in para. 5. necessary to learn from these events how to prevent the corrup- tion of schoolboys in future, and particularly their attempts to interfere in politics. It was the students who started the strike in Hongkong; and it was the students who created the shooting incident at Shameen as in Shanghai. The Hongkong school- boys were moved to their turbulent behaviour by some students from Shanghai. These students were said to have put up at the offices of the notorious Chung Kwok San Man Po," and they had a clear ten days to do all the mischief they could. So success- ful were their efforts that practically all the boy-schools were more or less contaminated. When the trouble began, the University was fortunately in vacation, but it must be said to their credit that those students who were in residence in the hostels behaved well. The same praise should be accorded to St. Paul's and St. Stephen's Girls' Schools which were the last of the schools to close, all their girls showing pluck in attending regularly in spite of personal threats at a time when many boys skulked off. When St. Paul's Girls' School was closed, some of the senior girls offered their services, through me, to the Post- master-General, and although the offer was thankfully declined on account of their delicate physique they were very useful to our Propaganda Bureau, in which they were employed for about a month in work requiring copying in large Chinese character.
87. Now, let us try to trace the cause or causes of the present state of affairs. From the first year of the Chinese Republic schoolboys and students in China have been arrogating to them- selves the right to assist in the government of the country, and they have been encouraged by persons who had their own ends to serve. In so far as our own schools are concerned, there can be no doubt that to a very large extent the ground had been pre- pared for them for this trouble, as during the last two years or so very undesirable literature had been introduced into the schools, particularly the vernacular boy-schools, and some of the Chinese teachers had not been altogether innocent in this respect.
an
88. Recommendations: Obviously the first remedy is increased watchfulness in the schools. Special care should be exercised in the supervision of the vernacular schools in par ticular, for these can the more easily become breeding-grounds of sedition. The teachers should be carefully chosen and supervised for this reason.
89. It should be impossible for propaganda to get so long a start before it comes to the knowledge of those in charge. In future, as soon as a political or industrial trouble is brewing in the Colony, the school authorities should do everything possible to prevent their boys participating in the agitation. If necessary, the schools might be closed at once.
The
90. To my mind we should get to the root of the evil. Chinese education in Hongkong does not seem to be all that it should be. The teaching of Confucian ethics is more and more neglected, while too much attention is being paid to the material-
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In such a
istic side of life. It is the opinion of many Chinese who have made some study of the subject, that there should be a graduated system of schools reaching up from the vernacular school to the Chinese middle school, and on to an enlarged and improved depart- ment or school of Chinese studies in the University. system great stress should be laid on the ethics of Confucianism which is, in China, probably the best antidote to the pernicious doctrines of Bolshevism, and is certainly the most powerful con- servative force, and the greatest influence for good. At present the only Chinese middle school is the Confucian Middle School established two years ago by Mr. Fung Ping-shan, Mr. Li Yik-mui, and others; and its object, like that of all the most famous English Public Schools, is not so much to impart miscel- laneous information, as to train the character of the scholars and thus fit them for social life and leadership. About eight months ago I suggested to the Director of Education and the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, and, in May last, to His Excellency the Governor, that either the Belilios Public School (when and if vacated for larger premises) or the present Saiyingpun School should be set aside for the purpose of a central Chinese school by the Govern- ment; and I am glad to see that provision has been made in the Estimates for 1926 for the establishment of such a school at Saiyingpun.
This action of the Government has given great satisfaction to those who have taken an interest in local educa- tion, for they believe that money spent on the development of the conservative ideas of the Chinese race in the minds of the young will be money well spent, and also constitutes social insurance of the best kind. Finally, I suggest that careful instruc- tion in Confucianism and its application to the problems of modern civic conditions should be given in all the schools where there are Chinese students.
Better Control of Newspapers.
91. There is no doubt that our press laws are inadequate in these days of Bolshevist influence and machination in our midst, I and with a view to securing the better control of newspapers addressed the Government on the subject in a separate letter dated the 9th October, 1925.
Chinese Propaganda in England.
92. Recommendation: Immediately after the outbreak of the trouble in Shanghai, the Chinese established in London an "' directed organisation called the "Chinese Information Bureau,' by returned students of ability and experience, for the purpose of supplying the English Press with such information as was calcu- lated to present their case in a favourable light. Curiously enough, the British residents in China had no such organisation in their own country. As a result of our unpreparedness, and the forethought of the Chinese, English public opinion for some weeks was at best indifferent, and at worst unfavourable to their own countrymen in China and Hongkong. The impression was almost universal that the whole trouble was fundamentally indus- trial, and the strike in Shanghai and Hongkong represented but a just revolt of workers against conditions long since abolished