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To my way of thinking the two greatest needs for the restarting of the University are:- (A) a large subvention from the Imperial Government, and (B) speed.
(A) The Hong Kong University is a matter of Imperial Policy and is a concern of the Foreign office more than of the Colonial Office or of the local Colonial Government. It cannot be repeated too often that the University does not exist merely to supply highly educated men and women for the Colony of Hong Kong: tha t is a subsidiary function.
1.
Hong Kong University is:-
an international university in the sense that the students of many nationalities and of many religions meet and study together and should acquire a wide tolerance of one another's ideals, 2.
a source of friendship between Great Britain and the countries of the Far East, not only China, but also the inhabitants of the East Indies, Java, Suma tra, Malaya and the others, and in happier days perhaps Japan,
3. a concrete proof of British friendship with China,
4.
a justification, if one were needed, for our retention of
Hong Kong,
5.
6.
7.
a bridge between British and Chinese philosophies,
a liaison between British and Chinese universities,
an example for the Far East of British educational me tho ds
and standards, and, (at the end, if you will),
8.
a provision of higher education for the colony of Hong Kong, an encouragement to the mutually beneficial commercial relations between Britain and the countries of the Far East,
9.
An endowment of three or four million pounds sterling from the Imperial Government is an absolute essential if the above functions are to be fulfilled if indeed the University is to continue at all.
speed.
(B) The second greatest need in restarting the University is
If we are to help China to reconstitute her own universities, if we are to preserve and enlarge the niche for British ideals and me thods of education in the Far East, we must start in, and function and expand with the utmost despatch.
A large subsidy will be granted more readily by a War Government in Britain which has been spending many times that amount in a day than by any Peace Government later.
I can see few advantages in liquidating this University and starting a new one: I certainly cannot see the all essential speed.
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