CO129-531-9 Hong Kong University- proposal to found faculty of Chinese studies 17-10-1930 - 10-6-1931 — Page 27

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empowered to appoint professors, lecturers and other aca-

It is clear from the ac

demic officers of the University.

tion which the Council did take in the matter that that body

could not possibly have authorized any such reply as that

which according to Dr. Wang Chung-hui was sent to Edinburgh.

Paragraph 4 of Statute 8 of the University Ordânance which

places the right of appointment in the hands of the Council,

contains a proviso to the effect that no appointment shall

be made by the Council without due consideration of the

claims of any candidate who may be recommended by the

Senate. There is evidence that the Senate was at the

time a little inclined to go beyond its statutory powers

in the matter of appointments, but there is nothing in the

file to suggest that the Senate ever communicated to

Edinburgh such a reply as is now assigned to the University

by Dr. Wang Chung-hui. If such a reply was ever communi-

cated to Edinburgh it looks as if this must have been done

by the London Committee. All I can say as regards that

is that I have before me the statement of the qualifications

etc., required in the new professor and the letter from the

Pro-Vice Chancellor to Sir Charles Addis the Chairman of

the London Committee.

Not a word is said in either of

these documenta about the exclusion of Chinese.

I must,

however, confess that the story of the incident, so far

as it can be told from the resolutions passed in the Senate

and in the Council, does suggest that the London Committee

was under the impression that a Chinese professor would not

be acceptable and that the London Committee who advertised

the post, was approached on D». C.Y. Wang's behalf, How

the Committee got that impression, if it did get it, I can

But the whole incident was most regrettable.

not say.

Dr. C.Y.Wang had excellent specialist qualifications;

Parker had none. Moreover Section 18 of the University Or-

dinance enacts that:-

"No distinction of race or nationality shall be