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27.
Sir Herbert Eason asked whether reliable figures could in fact be got it this stage. They should first settle the principle of whether there should be a university at all. He thought that from the Imperial point of view it was essential for British prestige to have a university in Hong Kong and in Malaya. Unless we kept the university in Hong Kong we should certainly lose prestige in competition with our more active neighbours across the Atlantic, and if we waited until the question was settled through diplomatic channels of who would support it,
the time would have gone when we might profitably re-start the University. The first question was: did the Committee think it desirable to have a university? As an ordinary layman he thought it was most desirable.
28.
Dr. Venn agreed with Sir Herbert Eason.
29. Dr. Priestley wondered whether the British Government would be willing to envisage an expenditure of five or ten million which would be involved to do the job properly. It must not come out of the sum for the development of Colonial universities. It was not a fair charge on Hong Kong revenue.
30. Sir George Moss thought it would be useless to ask the Government to provide five or ten million if they had no assurance that the University would be welcomed and given fair play by the Chinese Government. In the present state of the world it should be possible to get assurances quite quickly. He thought the Foreign Office could find out.
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31. Mr. Sloss said that in his time, he had never known a single instance of a Hong Kong graduate being refused employment in any Chinese Government Department provided that he knew Chinese. That had been the obstacle. many Chinese from overseas came to Hong Kong because they did not know Chinose. They then applied for posts in China and not unnaturally were refused.
32.
So
Mr. N.L. Smith said it should be remembered that in 1911, when Sir Frederick Lugard had his inspiration, universities in China were almost as unknown as motor-cars. There was a medical school at Peking, something at Hankow and a few missionary institutions only. Now they were thick on the ground. The creation of Hong Kong University was intended as a lighthouse to show the Chinese what a university could be.
33.
It might not be so relevant now.
Mrs. Fonter remarked that the standard of Chinese universities was low.
34. Professor Hinton thought that some were very good, although they were naturally in a bad way now. But surely all the activities of a university, once there was a college of arts and science as a basis, need not be of an under- graduate character. The idon should be not a large university, but to try to provide facilities for rescarch work and to bring people from the Chinese universities to Hong Kong for higher degrees. In that way a considerable number of graduates of reputable Chinese universities could be drawn to Hong Kong from Chin^. Professor Hinton submitted that it was almost unknown for a university to disappear. States disappeared, but not universities.
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