CO129-610-1 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 3-1-1947 - 29-12-1947 — Page 229

funds in the future.

227

All that

to rely on any grant from U.K.

the Treasury will agree to at present is to review the position

at some later date. Dr. Sloas said that this was a great pity

because he thought that if they were able to say in Hong Kong

that H.M.G. were behind the University, even if only to the

ken

extent of a to contribution, they would probably be able

£100,000 to £200,000

to raise 1,000 to £2,000 by voluntary subscription among the

Chinese.

Dr.

These voluntary subscriptions would not be forth-

coming otherwise, because the people felt doubtful about the

future of Hong Kong and also the currency of the Colony. As

for the former, en suggested that it was suggested that

it could be said with confidence that whatever the future of

the Colony, the University was likely to remain British.

Sloss said that this line had been tried but it had not

succeeded. On the currency point, he said that there was a

danger that Hong Kong might leave the sterling area and that

the the request for her to do so might come from here, since

at present she represents a drain on our dollar resources.

It was evident from the discussion that Dr. Sloss had

been thinking of the possibility of restoring the University

to its prewar 1942 standard (and giving up for the moment the

idea of re-establishing it on an extended basis), since he

said that he had worked out that in order to do this, the

University would require some $700,000 revenue a year in

excess of any estimate of revenue on which he thought he could

count upon from existing resources, and that this would not

existing

cover rehabilitation buildings and the re-equipment of the

University. He agreed that the estimates in the Committee's

Report were very badly out. Meanwhile the University is

flourishing on a very limited scale indeed.

As a result of discussion with Dr. Sloss a personal

telegram has now gone to the Governor offering to approach

the Treasury for a small token grant towards the cost of the

/re-establishment