CO129-494 - Governor Sir Clementi - 1926 [9-10] — Page 491

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The sum asked for is, therefore, available.

16.

469

In this connection I have to invite attention

to the extract from the Deputation's minutes of the

20th May, 1926, quoted on Page 63 of the Report. In this minute the Deputation expresses the opinion that expansion.

of the Hong Kong University would sooner or later

necessitate its transfer to the mainland, and that it

would therefore be a mistake to spend large sums of money on buildings on the present site. I cannot under-

stand how the Deputation arrived at this opinion. None

of the Chinese members have ever, to my knowledge, seen

the University. Dame Adelaide Anderson and Professor

Soothill spent about an hour there on their way through Hong Kong to Shanghai. Lord Willingdon visited the University on three occasions. Not one of these members

of the De utation ever suggested that there was no room

for extension on the present site; nor, so far as I am aware, did anyone connected with the University ever make such a suggestion to anyone of them. The idea that the University should be moved to the mainland is entirely impracticable. There is, moreover, ample room for expansion on the present site, especially as it is not contemplated that the University should ever contain more than about 500 students. Additional playing fields cannot be made on the present site, but they can be provided at a reasonable distance. The argument, there- fore, that the University should not provide itself on

the

its present site with/additional buildings which it requires is entirely without justification.

17.

It may be objected that to give a large sum

of money to the Hong Kong University would be unpopular

in China. To this view. I do not assent. The

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politicians