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his remarks should be taken as essentially personal and not necessarily the views of the Colonial Office. The paper to which Sir hawaaraw the particular attention of the Committee was No. HKUAC 3. It was no secret that the British position in Hong Kong was questioned, on nationalist grounds in China. Thatposition could be defended in various ways. For instance, when the place was ceded to us a hundred years ago it was a barren rock inhabited only by a few fishermen; the material growth of Hong Kong, now one of the great ocean ports of the world and a centre of business, is largely a British product. But there is something more than mere buildings, portad wharves etc. there are courts, police and all the other concomitants of law and order, which not only provide a settled life in Hong Kong itself but are of value to China as well. In a centre of disturbance Hong Kong had been a valuable oasis for Chinese industry, and if a vote were taken in South China, Sir Edward thought that great numbers of people there would favour Hong Kong remaining under a non-Chinese administration. But could we afford to encourage the sort of opinion referred to in the last paragraph of No. 3 that Britain is associated in the Chinese mind with questions of commerce rather than culture. This surely suggested that there should be no going back on the purpose of the founder as set out in the first paragraph of No. 3, namely Hong Kong University, should be a centre from which would emanate an influence profoundly affecting a nation numbering one-fourth of the population of the world. Is Hong Kong only to serve commercial interests, and thus support the widespread belief that we are a nation of shopkeepers, asked Sir Edward. Rather he thought that the conditions of law and order which we had brought to Hong Kong should serve cultural as well as commercial interests. If so an essential concomitant was the maintenance and development of Hong Kong University on the lines originally intended.
Referring to future political development,
Sir E. Gent said that Hong Kong was essentially a large ocean port with no hinterland but a teeming city round the harbour. An embryo Municipality was developing before the war, and he could suppose that a form of municipal government with a harbour board ete. would be the future line of development. The city was 99 per cent. Chinese, a great proportion of whom came from Canton and other South China ports. n 20-50 years time we should be relying on the products of Hong Kong University, and we should therefore ensure that they were friendly with Chinese students and familiar with Chinese thought.
It seemed to him (most important that this development were as he foresaw there should be no rift between the products of higher education in Hong Kong and their colleagues in
graptheir China on the ground that the former were British subjects. This could best be achieved by as much interchange of students and teaching staff as possible. If Hong Kong University came to serve only the narrower needs of the British Colony and were out of touch with the authorities in China itself, the future of Hong Kong would be seriously compromised. We could not in his view afford to drop Hong Kong University, nor could we afford to lessen the high aim its founder had for it.
3. The Chairman said that the meeting was indebted to Sir Edward for his clear picture and hoped that members would ask any questions they would like to put, because Sir Edward might not be able to attend another meeting.
4. Mr. Sloss asked what was the starting point in the
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