CO129-593-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45. Includes 32 photographs depicting-... 10-1-1945 - 20-1-1946 — Page 169

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on the Treasury, even if feasible, be compatible wit.. the rightful status of a University. Reconstitution, even temporary, by a necessarily entirely non-Chinese Committee in this country would in my judgment fatally prejudice any chances that there may be of getting the local Chinese support, financial and otherwise, essential to a successful and permanent resurrection. It would be better that the University should never open rather than that, having reopened, it should later have to be closed down. The Chinese must, I consider, be brought in on the ground floor of any rehabilitation.

Your letter states that immediate reconstruction of the University will be necessary "in order that it may be in a position to meet those urgent demands that will be made on it for doctors, teachers and other qualified persons to assist in restoring normal conditions." How long will this demand last? For less than a decade, I should say; and surely this is not a sufficiently lasting demand to justify the hasty reconstruction of the University without consultation with, and the collaboration of, the people of the Colony? If the Colony will require (and I agree that it inevitably will) a Training College for its future servants over the post-war years surely would it not be better and wiser for the Colonial Government to form an ad hoc Institution (renting the University premises and footing the bill for all running expenses not recoverable from fees) rather than rehabilitate the University without the local support essential to permanent success? Circumstances have indeed become so radically different from those obtaining when Lord Lugard founded the Hong Kong University that one may reasonably feel it due to his memory that the question of reconstruction on anything like the old lines should be reserved for careful consideration and consultation on the spot rather than be hastily determined in advance of our re-entry into the Colony. The formation of a temporary training institution or Pro-University would involve no long-term policy and could be arranged by the Hong Kong Planning Unit and the secretary of State's Advisers without the encumbrance of any special Committee, without subsequent

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