CO129-588-8 Hong Kong University- British Council scholarships and Rhodes Studentship 11-1-1941 - 17-12-1942 — Page 27

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THE RHODES TRUST,

Temporary Address:- Rhodes House,

OXFORD.

2nd July, 1942.

27

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Dear Mr. Amery,

Many thanks for your note about Sargent and the suggestion of a Rhodes Scholarship for Chinese students. As I daresay you remember, in July 1940, Lord Lloyd, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, asked whether the Trustees would found a Rhodes Scholarship for Chinese, or Chinese British subjects, from Hong Kong University. The Trustees said that a Rhodes Scholarship was impossible, but offered £1,000 to be spent over a period of five years, or thereabouts, to bring one or more Chinese, or Chinese British subjects, to Oxford. I then had a discussion on the whole question with the Governor of Hong Kong, who was here on leave, and two members of the Colonial Office. It appeared that the main object of the Governor was to assist the finances of the University and to increase its influence in China, and what he really wanted the Trustees to do was to found a Chair of Colonial History at Hong Kong. I suggested that a cheaper alternative, which might serve these two purposes better even than his own proposal, might be the offer of scholarships at Hong Kong University itself for students from non-British China, Eventually this suggestion was accepted, but financed by the British Council. The Governor's suggestion of a Chair was put aside and the Colonial Office accepted the Trustees' offer of £1,000 for post-graduate Studentships. Owing to the war these Studentships, needless to say, have not materialised, although the Government of Hong Kong have accepted the offer and agreed that the scholarships should be called "Rhodes Trust Post-Graduate Studentships", in order to avoid confusion with Rhodes Scholarships proper. The Council of Hong Kong University was to administer the Studentships.

The Rt. Hon. L.S. Amery, M.P.,

112, Eaton Square,

London, S.W.1.

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