CO129-625-5 Hong Kong University- establishment fund 1-3-1950 - 31-1-1951 — Page 25

25

-2-

"We recommend that the University of Hong Kong should be re-established as soon as possible on a firm financial basis, with staff and facilities adequate to make it fully capable of reaching British academic standards and becoming an effective centre for Sino- British contact in the sphere of learning.

We are of opinion that the restoration of the University on its inadequate pre-war basis would be detrimental to British prestige in the Far East; and that, if it is not to be restored on a worthy standard, it should not be revived at all, in spite of any immediato effect on prestige and the loss to British cultural relations with China which such a decision would entail."

The report recommended that the capital and recurrent expenditure involved, tentatively estimated at £1 million capital and an additional £85,000 per annum to the University's existing resources should be met from Imperial, not Colony, sources.

in

4. The Cox Committee report was presented in July, 1946. In April, 1948, the Secretary of State for the Colonics announced in Parliament that "Its further consideration has unfortunately had to be deferred owing to the present conditions in the United Kingdom. The Hong Kong Government and the Secretary of State for the Colonies do not, however, consider that it would be right to delay any further a decision on the re-establishment of the University, and it has been decided that steps should be taken now to restore the University, as rapidly as possible, to its status and scope of 1940." "The purposes for which the Universi uy was founded are not forgotten, and, as already indicated, the question of developing it to the standards recommended by the Committee will be further considered as soon as practicable. In the meantime the re-establishment of the University on its 1940 scale will, itself, provide an opportunity for growth, not necessarily in numbers but in maturity and in diversity of activities. The incentive towards growth will come from within the University and from the desire of the people of Hong Kong that the University should reflect in realms of science and intelligence, the success of the Colony in the realms of trade and industry. The interest of the Colony is shown in the generous measure of immediatc help given by the Hong Kong Government." The full text of this statement was circulated to the Inter-University Council as I.U.C./E.18/48.7 This decision meant, in effect, reopening the University without any certainty that it would be adequately financed, in all too literal a sense restoring it to its 1940 position one feature of which, the Cox Committee had emphasized, was its poverty. In April, 1948, a Colonial Office statement dealing with war damage compensation announced that as a further expression of their willingness to assist Hong Kong, His Majesty's Government are prepared

to make a free grant of £250,000 for the Hong Kong University". None of this £250,000 has yet been paid to the University.

5. The burden of the restoration of the University has been borne until now by local funds. The local Government made a capital grant of £250,000 to the University for the restoring of the buildings and equipment which (apart from the contents of the library) suffered great losses during the occupation and . particularly in the period of looting that followed the Japanese surrender. We should like here to record our great admiration of the way in which the problems of rehabilitation were overcome; it was a notable achievement by the University staff and authorities, particularly the Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Sloss, and it reflects the spirit of the Colony's attitude towards its University.

This/