CO129-547-12 Hong Kong University- problems 22-2-1934 - 7-3-1934 — Page 4

Sir William Hornell, C.I.E.,

Vice-Chancellor,

University of Hong Kong.

Education Department,

Hong Kong, 22nd February, 1934.

Dear Sir William,

Thank you for your letter of 17th February forwarding a

copy of the later proposals of St. Stephen's College in the matter

of Chinese in Group II of the School Certificate Examination.

2.

I think we must come down to fundamentais, and you will

forgive me if, as a non-expert in education, I labour points which

are probably quite elementary.

3.

I suppose that the reason why small boys in England are

made to study Latin, which will almost certainly in most cases be of

no direct use to them in the battle of life, is that it is a good

mental exercise (as in a different way is the almost equally useless

Algebra); that the effort of translation makes for straight thinking;

and that they will probably write and talk more correct English as a

consequence of that effort.

4.

And I suppose it is for some such reason that the Medical

authorities throughout the world agree (if, as I understand, this

is the case) that a man must not be permitted to remove an appendix

unless he has up to quite a late stage in his education subjected

his mind to the discipline of a second language.

Now if a Frenchman goes to Heidelberg for his education

it is to be understood that he will already have enough German to

follow the instruction there, so that in a marked degree he must

automatically nave those mental advantages which, for a Frenchman

educated in France, can only be obtained by the laborious study of

a foreign language.

6.

Here in Hong Kong English is and must always be the medium

of instruction in secondary schools and in the University. Chinese

and Indian students will normally talk a nd think in their own languages

so that their position might not seen to differ greatly from that of