CO129-538-1 Hong Kong University 31-12-1931 - 6-8-1932 — Page 239

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The Universities China Committee will be doing a great service to Sindlogists if some funds could be appropriated to enable the British Museum to com-

The plete the catalogue in the immediate future. National Library of Peiping will be glad to loan the services of a trained and competent cataloguer to assist in this undertaking if it should be found de- sirable.

A further service which the Committee might render is the publication of selected manuscripts from the

It is Tun Huang collection in the British Museum. evident that if others have found it desirable to publish some of the manuscripts, with the generous consent of the British Museum, the large scale pub- lication of all the more important manuscripts will be a most welcome event to the world of letters especially to those interested in Sinology and Buddhism. Chinese scholars will particularly appre- ciate the availability of the old texts, which most of them cannot hope personally to study in London."

These are suggestions which the delegation has

no hesitation in warmly commending to the attention of the

Committee.

Another method whereby the Committee might ful-

fil part of its obligation to encourage and facilitate the

teaching of Chinese

at the uni-

versities of the United Kingdom would be to offer an annual

prize or perhaps a number of prizes for the best essays

or monographs on set subjects connected with the Chinese

language and literature. The competition might be open to

undergraduates (possibly also to graduates of not more than

three years standing) of all the British universities. It is

understood that the study of Indian problems has been foster-

ed to no small extent in English schools and colleges by the

offer of prizes of this kind, and we think that interest in

China might be similarly stimulated by the offer of medals

or other prizes to be competed for by young English students.

A further valuable suggestion which has been made is that some small beginnings might be made of a system of subsidising the translation of approved books from English into Chinese and Chinese into English. Many books in both languages which would be of immense educational and cultural Value are at present left untranslated because publishers wil? rarely accept the risk of producing books which, owing to their limited appeal, are unlikely to be commercially profit- able. The chairman of the delegation recently discussed some