Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 110

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Enclosure No. 3.

PETITION FROM LEADING CHINESE GENTLEMEN OF THE COLONY

FOR AN ENGLISH SCHOOL FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE

SIR,

CHILDREN OF THE CHINESE UPPER CLASSES.

HONGKONG, 2nd March, 1901.

On behalf of an important and influential section of the Chinese Community we desire respectfully to draw the attention of His Excellency the Governor to the urgent need for a suitable English School for the education of the children-both boys and girls-of the upper classes of the Chinese resident in this Colony.

2. The efforts of the Government have hitherto been directed almost exclu- sively to the spread of an elementary education among what may be called the lower and lower middle classes both Chinese and non-Chinese. But the higher and more thorough training of the children of the more well-to-do classes has never been provided for.

3. The Queen's College and the Belilios Public School are excellent Govern- ment institutions in their way, but the exceedingly large number of pupils attend- ing these schools and the paucity of English teachers, and the indiscriminate and intimate intermingling of children from families of the most various social and moral standing, render them absolutely undesirable as well as unsuitable for the sons and daughters of respectable Chinese families.

4. As Government Board Schools, the above institutions answer their purposes admirably, but, we submit that, in view of the large increase to the Chinese popu- lation of a higher social status and permanently residing in this Colony, it is time that some provision should be made for a secondary education for their children.

5. At present, Chinese, who wish to give their sons a good English education, have either to send them to England or the United States for a long period or to engage at great expense a private tutor, who after all may not be a trained teacher. In the first case the children are parted from their parents at a most impression- able age and incur a very great risk of finding themselves unable on their return to resume their proper position in the family.

6. The want is now increasingly felt of a school at which such a thorough knowledge of English could be obtained as would enable boys to leave school at a suitable age, and on proceeding to England to at once enter on the special course of study prescribed for the profession which might have been selected for them by their parents.

7. The best interests of the family demand also that the liberal education of Chinese boys should be accompanied by a commensurate advance in the education of Chinese girls, and it is for this reason that the scheme which we now beg to submit to His Excellency's most favourable consideration makes equal provision for girls.

8. The expense entailed upon the Government by the adoption of the scheme may at first sight appear great, but we do not consider that it will be in any way out of proportion to the results which are to be looked for. It is at present a con- stant complaint that, having received an education in the Government Schools, the Chinese have failed to assimilate to any extent English sympathies and ideas, and are ever backward in responding to the call of public duties. But we are confident that thorough education on the lines which we now suggest will soon remove all