CO129-618-3 University of Hong Kong- grants and financial assistance 6-5-1948 - 10-6-1948 — Page 69

Dear Adams,

29th April, 1948.

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Uncertainty about the future. of Hong Kong has pre- vented us putting before the Inter-University Council and the Grants Committee any proposals for development. On 7th April the Secretary of State for the Colonies made a statement in the House that I saw only after my arrival in England on April 20th. . The University is to be developed to its 1940 status with the aid of grants from the Hong Kong Government and, it now appears, from His Majesty's Treasury; a sum of £250,000, I understand, in both cases; and the Hong Kong Government will increase its recurring annual grant to the University from £28,000 to £96,000. We are now in a position to carry out the additions and developments of teaching recommended by a committee that sat in Hong Kong in 1939. But the Secretary of State's statement was also, in effect, an acceptance of the recommendations of the 1946 Committee in London of which you were a member. Within two years we ought to be restored to our 1940 status and have well in hand the small additions to our work approved in 1939. But con- ditions will compel us at once, to go beyond these. The provision of training for more doctors and teachers will demand additional buildings, equipment and staff; courses in medical subjects will increase the need for

post-graduate additional teaching beds in hospitals and the training of architects will have to be taken in hand next session: additional living accommodation for students, particularly

for women is necessary and for more expatriate professors and lecturers, as they can be housed outside the University only at an inordinate cost. To achieve these objects the University now wishes to have. approval of the Inter-University Council and the assistance of the Grants Committee for the following projects:

1. The taking over of a Chinese Charity Hospital, the Tung Wah Eastern Hospital and its conversion into a teaching hospital to supplement our diminishing facilities for teaching in Government hospitals, and to make provision for additional students and for post-graduate students. (circa £90,000).

2. The provision of accommodation and equipment for the teaching of architecture. (Perhaps £15,000).

3. The rebuilding of an enlarged University Hall, the Government of Hong Kong supplying the funds to the total of the cost of restoring the present Hall, the Grants Committee being asked to give about £20,000 to meet the cost of extension.

4. The building of a Hall of Residence for about 100 women students, with accommodation for a Warden and two tutors (about $62,500).

5. Building and equipment for the training of teachers for Hong Kong and of teachers, of English for China. The Grants Committee would be asked to assist only to the extent to which the new provision is necessary to meet purely Colonial needs (about £20,000).

6.