most useful work. The problem is no- thing less than the invention of a new medium of education for several hundred million human beings, and its importance for the future of mankind cannot be exaggerated.
8
World-wide-
lieve, do more to promote peace and action on these lines would, I firmly be-
goodwill
different among nations than can
be effected by treaties or conventions.
ever
races and
philology: but as a man of the world and a persistent traveller over the earth's highways and byways, I would add that I greatly cherish the hope that some day a League of Nations will agree to teach all children of whatever race and people I wish to guard myself carefully against second language in addition to their from youth upwards one and the same any suggestion that the remarks which I native language and that this language, have made are intended as a disparage common to all people on earth, should ment of the Chinese language and litera-be the English language. ture. Nothing is further from my thoughts. I have devoted many years of my life to a study of Chinese and my study has left me with a profound ad- miration of Chinese literature and especially of Chinese poetry. But the Chinese language has in a very real sense "the defect of its qualities." Its best quality is the concise, lucid and pictures- que manner in which it portrays Chinese life and thought. Its corresponding de- fect is that, possibly because it forms so excellent a medium for the study of things Chinese, it is a very refractory medium for the interpretation of Western ideas. It forms indeed a sort of Forbidden City into which anything that is not Chinese can enter only in disguise, if at all. The problem for solution is how best the gates of this Forbidden City may be thrown
open.
NEED OF A SECOND LANGUAGE.
NEW USES FOR THE UNIVERSITY.
Such a hope will not be fulfilled in our lifetime: but may I in conclusion take that the austere manner up a more lowly standpoint and suggest in which the Chinese language frowns at everything which is not Chinese perhaps accounts for the fact that so many Europeans live for years in Hongkong and in the Chinese treaty ports without making any effort to speak or to read the Chinese language? Accordingly the peculiar compradore system has come into being and we have a whole host of intermediaries between the Westerners and the Chinese. Only Government officials and missionaries, as a rule, can deal dircct with the Chinese who surround them, and hence arise many regrettable misunderstandings. In this matter there seems to be room for give and take. The Chinese admittedly desire to acquire Western learning. They should, therefore, endeavour to make their language a more flexible medium for conveying western thought. The Euro- peans wish to trade with the Chinese. They should, therefore, make a sincere effort to acquaint themselves with the Chinese language. If Government offi- cials and missionaries can do so, why cannot the merchants follow suit? would pay them handsomely and they would soon find that there is not only profit, but also pleasure, in forming friendships with Chinese gentlemen of the old school, who may perhaps not have been westernized as is the case with many of the younger generation, but who in
ners have nothing to learn from the West. Here again I think that the Hongkong University has before it a wide sphere of usefulness: and I propose as soon as
I must also guard myself against the misconception that I have any desire to see a reformed Chinese language sub- stituted for English as the medium of instruction in this University. Such an idea is so far from my mind that I would rather give it as my settled opinion that no Chinese can make a really scientific study even of his own language without first acquiring a competent knowledge of some inflexional language and that he will find no language more useful than Eng lish for such a purpose. When we look through the eye-piece of a telescope, we see the object in the field of vision, but the telescope itself disappears from view. Similarly when we use our mother tongue as an instrument for the expression of thought, we lose sight of its grammatical, syntactical and etymological peculiarities; and these peculiarities are best brought home to us when we place our native language side by side with another lan-intelligence, uprightness and good man- guage, or preferably with several other languages, and study them in comparison as it were from outside. I say this as one who has taken a lifelong interest in
It
——
DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE possible to enquire how far the Faculty of Arts can assist the Hongkong Govern- (ENGINEERING).-Messrs. S. B. Ahmed, ment in the higher education of our cadets Cheng Hsu Ting, Liang Lin Kee, Wu in the Chinese language and generally in Chang Ching, Yue Shui Chiu, Yui Zong things Chinese and also to ascertain what Chen. arrangements can be made to afford similar facilities in the University for young English business-men, who look forward to making a career in China: because, important though it is for this University to interpret Western thoughts and aspirations to China, it is no less important that it should adequately inter- pret Chinese thoughts and aspirations to the West. (Applause.)
LIST OF GRADUATES.
Other degrees conferred by H.E. The Chancellor were as follows:
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF MEDICINE AND BACHELOR OF SURGERY.-Messrs. Lam Shiu Kwong, Lee Boon Choe, Lung Hsing Kuei, Soo Hoy Mun, Teh Yok Chee, Teo Kah Toh, Tseung Fat Im, Yeo Kok Cheang, and William Yuen Sze Chung.
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS.-Miss I. Ho Tung, and Messrs. Ban Teong Hoe, A. G. Botelho, Chan Cheuk Wa, Cheong Wai Fung, Fung Yiu Shiu, Wong Ching Yau, Lam Choi Chiu, Lau Lai Sang, Leigh Byng, Ma Char Zur, N. V. Nguyen, Ooi Khay Bian, C. A. Peterson, A. G. F. Prew, N. H. F. Prew, Pun Shiu Pang, Shu Yu Pong, So Pak Sui; B. M. Talati, Teoh Khoy Moh, Tong Chun Chung, V. F. Viccajee.
The graduates were individually pre- sented to the Chancellor, and when I. Ho Tung, the only lady graduate, was presented His Excellency raised his cap and cordially shook hands.
There was
a tremendous amount of cracker firing as the degrees were con- ferred.
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