95
In bidding farewell to the University, on
his departure to take up office as Governor
Straits Settlements, Sir Cecil Clementi said:
of the
"I do
not believe that anything could do more to enhance the security, the welfare and dignity of this Colony, and
to strengthen British prestige in China, than that
during the course of the twentieth century a famous
seat of Chinese learning, to which men throughout the
Eighteen Provinces would look as Englishmen look to
-
-
Oxford and Cambridge for authoritative guidance in
the study of their language, their literature, their
history, and their archaeology, their folklore, their
religious beliefs and the whole fabric of their civili-
zation. If the Chinese thus came to look on Hong Kong
with affection as a place in which all that is dear to
them is cherished, in which all that is hallowed for
them by past tradition is carefully studied, and in
which all that may help them in their renaissance is
made accessible and intelligible and is adapted to
their needs, then we may look into the future with
serene assurance; for this Colony would not in that
event stand aloof from the trend of Chinese thought
and aspirations; it would not merely be a commercial
outpost from which Great Britain watches over her
subjects in China; but it would be in the forefront of
the movement which, sooner or later, will bring to the distraught and harassed peoples of China an end of
revolution, an end to chaos and anarchy, a dawn of
better things, of law and order and settled government,
and which finally will carry that ancient land to a stage of development higher and nobler than that it has
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