CO129-531-10 Hong Kong University- encouragement of Chinese students to counteract American influence 30-5-1931 - 1-9-1931 — Page 104

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This

resignation is dated the 26th September, 1920, but I

know, for I was passing through Hong Kong at the time

on my return from a visit to Japan and China, that for

some time before the resignation was actually accepted,

Sir Charles had ceased to function as Vice Chancellor.

4. It seems that early in 1919 ten University

posts had been referred to the Hong Kong University

Consulting Committee in London for recruitment.

Committee of which Sir Charles Addis is Chairman still

exists (see page 68 of the University Calendar for 1931)

but I have never made any use of it. I believe that

in the University's earliest days the Committee was

useful, but it made, to my knowledge, at least three

serious blunders in connexion with the recruitment of

teachers and others for the University Staff.

5.

It appears from the Minutes of the Senate

that the Consulting Committee met in London on the

18th June and the 8th July 1919, and selected persons

for five of the posts which had been referred to them.

Among the persons selected was a Dr. A.E. Parker who was

put forward for the Chair of Pathology. A minute

recorded by the Senate at a meeting held on the 25th

August, 1919, shows that Professor G.P. Jordan had

authorized the Consulting Committee to make the

appointments without reference to the University and that

the Senate subsequently ratified Professor Jordan's

action. Incidentally the Senate has, under the

University Ordinance, no power of appointment;

consequently the action of that body in ratifying the

action of the Pro-Vice Chancellor in this connexion was

ultra vires.

6.