Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 475

poorer classes who are unlikely to prolong their children's education; while the students who attend the Anglo-Chinese Schools, where fees are charged, have usually first acquired their Chinese education on the mainland, or in Private Schools in the Colony.

It should be the policy of the Government to influence the education of Chinese children from their early years, but little can be done whilst the Verna- cular Schools remain what they are.

ANGLO-CHINESE SCHOOLS.

19. In the Anglo-Chinese Schools instruction in the English Language is of course essential: it is to give this instruction that the schools were founded, and to obtain it that they are attended.

It is essential that Western Knowledge should be a compulsory subject in every Standard.

It is essential that the students should possess on entering a sufficient knowledge of the Chinese Written Language, which knowledge should be maintained and improved during the school course.

The Committee are fully alive to the extreme importance of spreading the English Language among the Chinese: but they maintain that the spread of Western Knowledge is no less essential. Their opinion that a knowledge of Eng- lish has not always proved sufficient in itself to ensure a feeling of goodwill towards the Empire, is supported by the authority of Lord CROMER, who writes in his Report upon Egypt for 1900, page 51 :-"The Egyptians, as a rule, think that they will have a better chance of obtaining Government employment if they know English than if they are ignorant of that language. Within certain limits, they are probably right. The English on the other hand, provided they are really acquainted with Egyptian circumstances and requirements, regard the matter wholly from an educational point of view. study of foreign languages, whether English or necessary and useful to the Egyptians themselves. superficial, and, in my opinion, generally erroneous view, that the study of French or English necessarily connotes the creation of French or English political proclivities." It is highly desirable that a fair exposition of our policy in the East, and of China's relations with the other Powers, should be presented to every Chinese scholar: but these ideas can be conveyed in the Chinese language no less well than in English.

***

They wish to confine the French, to what is really They are not led away by the

The argument that Chinese should learn English to the exclusion of their own Written Language is often heard, but it will not bear serious consideration. No Chinese, however learned in English and Western Knowledge, can hope to be of influence with his countrymen, nor can he indeed communicate with them, if ignorant of the written character which binds the Chinese Empire together..

Too much besides has been made of the time which must be spent on the study of the Chinese Written Language: for a Chinese to learn to write clearly and intelligibly, and to read plain prose is no such immense undertaking. And it is quite possible that existing difficulties will some day be lessened after the methods which have approved themselves to the natural mentors of China-the Japanese.

20. The Anglo-Chinese Schools as at present constituted are defective in all three essentials.

As regards English, in colloquial, composition, and intelligent reading alike, the results attained are not commensurate with the time devoted to the study.

379