CO129-618-3 University of Hong Kong- grants and financial assistance 6-5-1948 - 10-6-1948 — Page 32

COLONIAL UNIVERSITY GRANTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

MALAYA:

S

C.U.G.C./19./48.

Application for assistance from the

C. D. & W. Higher Education Allocation.

(NOTE by Eastern Department, Colonial Office)

The Department ventures to invite the Committee's favourable consideration of the request by the Governor of Singapore and the High Commissioner for the Federation of Malaya that a sum of one million pounds should be promised as a contribution from C. D. & W. funds towards the cost of the proposed University of Malaya. This request was made in the telegram from the Governor of Singapore already circulated to the Committee (C.U.G.C./15./48.).

The report of the Carr-Saunders Commission has made a deep impression in Malaya where the bold and imaginative faith which it shows in the capacity of the peoples of Malaya has been widely welcomed. No part of the Colonial Empire has greater reserves of ability among its people than Malaya: in none is there greater danger of developing a sense of frustration and bitterness, if this ability is denied its opportunities. The proposals of

the Commission provide a plan by which the abilities of all communities in Malaya can be developed and used constructively for the good of the country as a whole. Moreover the Commission have succeeded in creating a very favourable atmosphere for initiating the great enterprise which they propose. It would be folly not to take advantage of this favourable atmosphere to press vigorously ahead with the plans for establishing a university.

They tend

The proposals

There is another reason why this moment is par- ticularly favourable in Malaya. The psychological effects of enemy occupation are profound and persistent. to undermine people's faith in themselves. for a University of Malaya strike a deeply responsive chord at this moment among the people of the country partly because they affirm so convincingly the faith of His Majesty's Government in the capacity of those peoples.

But if the moment is favourable and the possi- bilities great the difficulties are no less formidable. There are, first, political difficulties due to the feeling of the Malays that they may be elbowed aside by the more industrious and nimble-witted Chinese. These difficulties the Commission have ably countered in their report and we may hope that they can be overcome. There will remain, however, an even more formidable financial difficulty.

Malaya has always had the misfortune to be dogged by a reputation for excessive prosperity. There may have been justification for this reputation before the war but there is little now. Singapore, it is true, has made a remarkable recovery and gone a long way towards recapturing its commanding position as a trading centre for the Far East but it is faced with heavy liabilities in the shape of essential capital work on rehousing, airport construction and other things. In the Federation, where the work of essential

rehabilitation

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