CO129-610-1 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 3-1-1947 - 29-12-1947 — Page 167

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and olfare funds for the promotion or higher education in the Colonies at large, we have felt justified in proposing very substantial contributions To those sources in view of the direct value of the university to Hong Kong itself. There remains, however, a large balance to be mat from other sources on the ground of the wider considerations described above.

Very broadly, what is proposed, therefore, is a fifty-fifty division between that wo may call the Colonial contribution, including Colonial

evelopment and welfare runds, and the special United Kingdom contribution, based on the value to the general British position in the Far bast. It is not proposed that there should be a strictly fifty- nifty division of both capital and recurrent expenditure but that the Special United Kingdom grant . should cover : large proportion of the capital expenditure and a smaller proportion of the recurrent, adding up to an approximately equal division of the total Government expenditure involved over the first ten years. In the more distant future, or course, the Colonial contribution would become more and more predominant.

. In org detail, it is proposed that of the esti.nted capital expenditure of 716,000, $500,000 choula bo wovided by a special grant from United Kingdom Funds and that towards the estimated recurrent working deficit of 113,500 per annum, His Majesty's Covernment should contribute an annual subvention of £30,000 rising by six annual stages to 245,000.

We know full well how strained United Kingdom resources are at present, but both r.Devin and my Secretary of State, who have discussed it between themselves, are satisfied or the necessity