CO129-594-1 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 29-3-1946 - 3-7-1946 — Page 113

PART II.

The origin of the University and reasons for proposals for

change.

1. A University was established in Hong Kong in 1911 on the foundation of an existing chartered College of Medicine to make further provision for education in the colony but also to become a "place for Higher Education where Chinese youths can remain under the influence of their own parents and guardians....subject to the strong control which Chinese opinion exerts upon young men, instead of being adrift in a foreign country where a liberty unknown to students in the East is allowed to undergraduates". Fear of liberty for students, at home or abroad, nowadays, takes a different shape. It is still to be said, however, that a sythesis of Chinese and Western ideas and influences in the minds of young undergraduates is probably more readily attained in a University which is an integral part of a society basically Chinese, though long and deeply permeated by British ideas and by a knowledge and appreciation of British institutions.

...

2. To achieve this end and also with a broader underlying conception Lord Lugard founded an institution "for the promotion of Learning the conferring of degrees, the development and formation of the character of students of all races, nationalities and creeds, and the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring Country of China". As the Memorandum of the Colonial off to the Far Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet (H.K.U.A.C.3) points out "The conception of the University as a vehicle for the establishment of good relations between Great Britain and China was always foremost in the mind of the founder, Lord Lugard, who saw it as a centre from which would emanate an influence profoundly affecting a nationa numbering one fourth of the population of the world." Evidence that this conception was shared by Chinese authorities is found in the fact that one of the major contributions to the original endowment of the University was subscribed in Canton with the encouragement of the Governor of the Province of Kufangtung who expressed his strong approval of the project' when forwarding the gift. Further evidence was the willingness in these early days to meet the cost of the students selected by their Education Departments for University studies in Hong Kong. A number of these men now hold posts of high importance in the Central and Provincial Governments of China and in professions and commerce.

3. The success of the University in meeting local needs has been demonstrated to the Committee by urgent requests for its early reopening from officials of the military administration, from leading Chinese residents in the Colony and from associations of old students but, as ✰✰

"a vehicle for the establishment of good relations" the committee concludes that it has he not by any means achieved the aims of its founders. The reasons for the failure are clear: (i) its poverty, (ii) the antagonism resulting from the rapid growth of Chinese nationalism especially between 1923 and 1931, (iii) the high University charges compared with those levied in China, (iv) the hold of Cantonese in the Island and the surrounding country and the slight use of the Mandarin language.

4.

Poverty.

(1) The University's resources have always been inadequate. Had the Chinese Revolution not occurred just at the time of the University's foundation and had there been no war in 1914, the munificent donations expected by the Founders might have been forthcoming. The attempt to maintain a satisfactory medical school and the minimum

provision