CO129-625-6 Hong Kong University- endowment fund 1-5-1951 - 30-9-1951 — Page 3

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12.7.51

Sir Arther Mone

Mr T.N. Clau

Sun Man Kam Lo

To Side botham

12.7.5/

12.7.51

Sir A. Morse, Mr. Chau and Sir M.K. Lo have been asked to attend a meeting on Monday morning 16th July at about 11.30 a.m. in H.344 to consider what can be done to find money to establish an Endowment Fund for the Hong Kong University. Sir C. Cox, Col. Ride and Mr. Adams have agreed to attend.

The Endowment Fund proposal arose out of the visit to Hong Kong of Mr. Mouat Jones and Mr. Adams see paragraph 8(c) of their Report at (1) on the 1950 file. This suggested £250,000 from H.M.G. and a similar amount from Hong Kong.

In (4) on the 1950 file Hong Kong suggested that £500,000 would not be enough if invested in gilt edge securities and suggested the money would secure greater interest if it were invested in local public utility shares. The minutes of 18.10.50 to 12.1.51 dealt with this question fully and in (6) on the 1950 file Hong Kong were informed that money provided locally by public subscription or the Hong Kong Government could be invested in public utility shares and enquired whether it would not in fact be possible to provide all the money required for the Fund from Hong Kong sources. The savingram ended by saying that there was little prospect of H.M.G. being able to make any further contribution to the University for such a fund.

In (3) on this file the Governor points out that the budget for the year ending June, 1952, shows a deficit of over $1 million and expects the deficit for 1952/53 to be in the neighbourhood of $1 million. He is not in favour of increasing the Government grant and considers that an appeal to the public would be useless in view of the business recession. He proposes that the Jockey Club should donate $2 million to be matched by an equal sum from the Hong Kong Government and that H.M.G. should contribute a sum equal to that raised in the Colony i.e. $4 million (i.e. £250,000). He then goes on to point out that $8 million (i.e. £500,000) is still not sufficient but will go some way towards solving the problem. If the proposal is not acceptable then the University must take immediate and drastic measures to reduce expenditure.

This is a difficult problem but I think the proposal to obtain money from the Jockey Club may give rise to criticism from some quarters, i.e. that this is not a suitable source of income for a University.

H.M.G. have been very generous in producing £500,000 already and Hong Kong should make a real effort to help its own University. It is true that

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