Extract from her. Poskin's minute of 24/7/51
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(C) Hong Kong University. This is the subject which is the occasion for Sir M.K. Lo's visit to the Secretary of State (with Sir A. Morse and others) on Friday and I do not expect that he will wish to go into this in any detail with you. may however say to you (as he has said to me) that he feels that Hong Kong was "led up the garden path" when, in 1947, in spite of the recommendation of the Cox Committee to the contrary, it was decided to reopen the University on its pre-war footing, with the implication that it would receive at any rate sufficient support from H.M. G. to prevent it falling into its pre-war state of insolvency. On this point I have looked very carefully at the 1947 papers and find that there is no substance for this view. It was then quite clearly indicated to Hong Kong that there was no certainty of any United Kingdom assistance being forthcoming. Nevertheless the University has since had a grant of £4m. from the Treasury and another £4m. from C.D.W.
As regards the object of the visit to the Secretary of State (i.e. to enlist his sympathy in trying to get a grant of a further £1 million from the Treasury) we think that we have now found what we hope will be a satisfactory solution i.e. the allocation to the University of 24 million from the Japanese assets at present held by the Custodian in Hong Kong. This will be discussed with the deputation which meets the Secretary of State on Friday. But when you see Sir M.K. Lo tomorrow, the statement will not have been made in Parliament of the intention to place at the disposal of the Far Eastern Colonial Governments the bulk of the Japanese assets at present held there.
On this matter therefore I suggest that you should say that you have not yourself been closely concerned with the problem of the University finances but that you gather that we feel that we have found some satisfactory solution.
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