CO129-594-3 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee- minutes of... 18-1-1946 - 9-4-1946 — Page 31

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HONG KONG UNIVERSITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

CaRecord of the First Meeting of the Hong Kong

University Advisory Committee held at 2.30 p.m. on Friday, the 18th of January, 1946, in the Conference Room, Dover House.

Present: Mr. C.W.M. Cox (in the Chair)

Mr. Walter Adams

Dr. H.J. Channon

Sir Herbert Eason

Mrs. L. Forster

Sir Edward Gent MR M. Hegeltimo

Professor W.J. Hinton

Sir George Moss

Professor L.M. Penson

Sir Humphrey Prideaux-Brune Dr. R.E. Priestley

Mr. D.J. Sloss

B 31

Mr. N.L. Smith

Dr. J. A. Venn Miss A.M.

Ruston

(Secretary)

Mr. E. Burney and Mr. E.A. Morse were unable to

be present.

1. The Chairman on behalf of the Secretary of State welcomed the members of the Committee and said how grateful he was that they had been able to accept the invitation to serve. The issue on which they were asked to advise was one of considerable importance to Hong Kong and to some Relation extent to Malaya as well, and had a definite bearing on our china and on the estimation in which Great Britain was held in the Far East. Mr. Cox then explained how the Committee had come into being."

Some of those present had been good enough to accept invitations from the Colonial Office early in 1945 to serve on a smaller committee with much narrower terms of reference which was to have been set up before the liberation of Hong Kong and the end of the war with Japan. Before the Committee met, however, those two events occurred together, and in view of the completely changed circumstances it was felt that any meeting should be suspended until Mr. Sloss had returned to this country and been able to give some idea of the situation as he had found it in Hong Kong. As a result of further

consideration it was then decided to extend the terms of reference and membership of this Committee and the present gethering was the result.

A

The Chairman then asked Sir Edward Gent, who until a few weeks ago had been in charge of the Far Eastern Department for a long period, to give some description of the background to the to the questions on which the Council were asked to advise.

2.

Sir Edward Gent said that He regarded the Committee as an extremely important body since it was asked to take decisions of lasting value, as he hoped, to the British position in the Far East. So far as he himself was concerned, he had, until recently, been concerned for many years past with Hong Kong affairs, but if he ventured on any predictions or ideas about the future of Hong Kong,

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