CO129-625-6 Hong Kong University- endowment fund 1-5-1951 - 30-9-1951 — Page 86

-3-

unless it's financial viability could be assured there was no point

in reopening, the University. As H.M.G. had pressed for the reopening

of the University they, therefore, had some responsibility to ensure

that it had adequate funds to continue its activities.

86

Colonel Ride said that if nothing was done about the University and

it ceased to function, room would have to be found for the students elsewhere,

e.g. in universities in the United Kingdom. He pointed out that this

would be against the policy of the Inter-University Council which had

recommended that colonies should accept full responsibility for higher

education and persuade students to obtain this in their own territories.

Sir Man Kam Lo stressed that H.M.G. must be aware that the Hong Kong

Government had contributed to the University annually and had recently

increased its subsidy.

Sir C. Cox suggested that we could not accept a refusal by the

Treasury to agree to a contribution from H.M.G. without referring the matter

to Ministers. He felt sure that the proposal would not go through without

a guarantee that whatever contribution H.M.G. gave would be matched by a

similar contribution by the Colony, and at the same time we should try and

foresee and answer possible Treasury objections. One might be that if

students from Hong Kong can go to the United Kingdom and the U.S.A. would it

not be possible to raise the fees. Colonel Ride and Mr. Adams both said

that the fees charged in Hong Kong are already higher than those charged

here. They are, in fact, higher than an "economic" rate, i.e. it is cheaper

for students to go to universities in the U.K. and the States if they can

find places.

Mr. Sidebotham said that Hong Kong was a colony with an extremely

flourishing trade and any amount of money. Why couldn't the Colony raise

all the money required.

Sir A. Morse pointed out that the colony had had to rehabilitate

itself at its own cost and without any help. He did not think that any

fortunes had been made in Hong Kong recently although he admitted that

many people might appear to be well off but that was another matter.

Sir Man Kam Lo said that although he and others wanted the

University to continue there were some who would like to see the University

/closed