CO129-567-12 Hong Kong University 24-1-1938 - 24-1-1938 — Page 110

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Mr. Sloss, who one gathered is far and away the

best Chancellor the University has had. Mr. Morse

went on to tell us that the University was

drifting without a policy, that the staff were

disheartened, the equipment poor, and that if the

University was to be maintained as an efficient

university new endowments must be found without

delay. The rate of expenses of the University at

Hong Kong (e.g. professors' salaries, as well as

the expenses of the students) was considerably in

excess of the corresponding costs at any of the

principal Chinese universities, and as the equip-

ment of Hong Kong University was inferior to that

in the best universities in China the only forseeable

result, unless something were done, was that the

University would rapidly lose any value it had and

would be not worth while maintaining as a

university

institution. All the facts were

known which bore on the situation and personally

he did not consider that it was necessary for any

Commission to be sent out to report before

decisions could be taken, nor did he consider that

it was necessary to await the restoration of

peaceful conditions in China, since whatever the

result of the present Sino-Japanese war the

problem would remain in its essential features.

What was needed, in the view of Mr. Morse and

Mr. Masson, both to set the University's finances

straight and to restore life to it and to its

personnel

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