CO129-593-6 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee papers 1-1-1939 - 31-12-1946 — Page 102

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Miss Ruston.

As there has been some talk in the Hong Kong University

Committee of the possibility of local specialization it has occurred to me that it might possibly be of interest to circulate the following three paragraphs from the Report of the 1937 Committee (of which I was Chairman) with which we concluded our recommendations in respect of the Arts Faculty:-

66. Throughout our inquiry we have kept in mind the primary object of the University to establish contact with China and to provide some thing of value to China. Most Universities worthy of the name will be found to have established in process of the time some special reputation for a particular course of training or even for a particular habit of mind. And we have been led to consider what particular contribution to knowledge could best be made by a University in such a unique geographical and political situation as Hong Kong.

67. The answer is not far to seek. On the one side is China at last showing signs of becoming politically vertebrate, floundering between democracy and dictatorship, trying to omit all the intervening evolutionary stages. On the other hand a Crown Colony with all the constitutional safeguards of political science (except the ballot-box) clearly defined.

68. The time may not be ripe and certainly the funds are not yet available. But we have visions of an Arts Faculty that would specialise in Political Theory, not as some thing as dead as an axiom of Euclid, but more in its historical and evolutionary aspect. Lecturers would be invited from Chinese Universities to keep that side of the historical question in view. Every few years there could even perhaps be a course of lectures from someone from England with sufficient amplitude of mind to realise what was expected of him. Above all there should be that complete freedom of thought and freedom of discussion which is as vital as fresh air where a University is concerned.

If such a dream could even partially be realised it is difficult to see what might not be the consequences on Asia and on civilization”

15th February, 1946.