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should be forthcoming as to their safety. So long as there continue to be grave reason to fear for the lives of foreign men, women, and chil- dren in the capital of China, it appears to the committee of this Association that no British official is justified in recognising, much less in honouring, as Her Majesty's representative, a Chinese official representing the political party responsible for the existing condition of affairs. As showing the opinion formed on this sub- ject in England, when the first intimation of Li's impending appointment was made known, the following extract from a leading article in the Times of the 12th of June is of in terest
ma-
The Powers are not likely to be fooled again into tolerance of a regime which openly flouts them one and all; and not even the anticipated appearance on the scene of that wily and well-known deus ex chind Li Hung-chang is likely to produce its wonted effect. With the reputation of a re- former, Li Hung-chang is in reality one of the most astute instruments of reaction, and his command of the methods of Oriental negotiation has more than once enabled him to play off China against the Powers and the Powers against each other. But that was when they were only too ready to play the game them- selves. They now know that it is no gaine they are playing, but a grim conflict in which they are all equally concerned for the elementary in- terests of Western civilisation in China, and so long as they are united it is certain that neither Li Hung-chang nor even the Empress-Dowager herself will be allowed to prevail against them." ----I am, etc.,
F. ANDERSON, Chairman, China Association.
19th July.
H. E. THE GOVERNOR LAYS THE FOUNDATION
STONE.
|
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
us.
[July 28, 1900. tial resort, it has been transformed into a busy; of people, on the threshold of whose door we hustling place with dookyards equal to the best stand, for their individual happiness and for the in the East and warehouses to store the wealth peace and prosperity of their empire now la- of manufacturing centres of Europe and Amer-bouring under severe trials as the consequence ica in transit to all points of the compass around of the darkness which has metaphorically
In short, with a prospective railway to con- enveloped it.. (Applause.)
His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR said Mr. nect this with the largest city in South China, Kowloon bids fair to become quite an important Ho Tung, ladies and gentlemen, allow me in the township in the near future. It follows, there- first instance to heartily re-echo the sentimenta fore, that a thriving place such as Kowloon is, so eloquently spoken by Mr. Ho Tung at the must have drawn to it quite a large and respect- conclusion of his observations, and to thank able community of its own. Indeed, with its him on behalf of the community for the gift of this school, the foundation stone of which 1 am Dockyard hands and the employees of the
now about to lay. The difficulty of a school in Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co., it may be said that the peninsula has be- Kowloon affording facilities for the education of better-class children on this side of the harbour come quite a colony by itself. And so it seems that the time has arrived when educational has been a difficulty of some years standing. facilities should be provided for the youth of Some few years ago a matshed was erected was. blown down by a typhoon. the place. In the attempts which unfortunate- but it
There have been difficulties about collecting ly failed of the Kowloon School Committee to provide these facilities on a permanent basis, it the money to build a proper school, difficul- might be seen that the building of a school- ties about the arrangements under which house cannot be longer deferred. The difficul- it should be built and under which it should be ty the committee had principally to deal entitled to the Government grant in aid. These with was the question of a suitable build-difficulties were overcome about the spring of ing. Fully appreciating the value of educa- last year, when Mr. Ho Tung came forward with a munificence which marks him as one of those tion. I felt almost bound to manifest that
noble minds who are always ready to utilise appreciation in a tangible form. From the discussion which has appeared in the local their wealth for the benefit of their fellow-men. Press from time to time it was evident (Applause.) Mr. Ho Tung offered to give that the Kowloon residents were most eager to $12,000 for the erection of this school on have a school provided for their children. They condition that the Government supplied the felt it was an imperative need, and sympathy site, and the result of that agreement is our was with them. Seeing, however, that no meeting here to day at this agreeable function. building vote for Kowloon could be included in Ladies and gentlemen, it does not require any the Colonial Estimates until a surplus of great faculty of prophecy to foretell that before $100,000 in the colony's revenue over expendi. the silver has streaked the hair of the first ture could be shown it was clear that the resi-scholars of this school the greater part of this dents of this suburb had to wait many a long and Peninsula will be covered by the residences of a weary year for the school, especially when we population which will probably rival that of bear in mind the decision of the Secretary of Victoria in numbers; and among that great State that the development of our new territory commercial community will be many men, I have no doubt, who will have owed their first educa- A DAY SCHOOL FOR KOWLOON. is to be paid for ont of the colony's current
tion to this school, which is about to be revenue. And so it was that I made the offer to Your Excellency to provide the funds necessary raised as a practical evidence of the sympathy for the erection of a school-house (applause)- of Mr. Ho Tung with the educational needs of on condition that Government was to grant the the community. (Applause.) Perhaps in the site. To-day's proceedings are the first fruit future, when prinay education has advanced of the acceptance of the offer by the Secretary of sufficiently to require some futher facilities for State. As the donor of the Kowloon School and education another benefactor, animated by the as a member of the Governing Body appointed by example of Mr. Ho Tung, may come forward Your Excellency to manage the affairs of the future institution, I hope I may be permitted to express the wish that while European children will be most welcome to derive the benefits from the instruction to be imparted in the school, no effort should be spared to encourage Chinese parents to send their children to an institution where they will learn to become useful men and women in society and loyal citizens to the state. One word must be said as to the object of the school. It is embodied in the first of a series of resolutions adopted at a meeting for the dis- cussion of the lines on which the school should The foundation stone was laid by His Excel-be conducted. At that meeting the Inspector lency the Governor (Sir Henry Blake, G.C.M.G.) of Schools, Dr. Wright, and Mr. Reid (as re- on Friday afternoon, the 20th inst., in the pre-presenting the Kowloon residents) were present. sence of a large company. His Excellency was I believe it to be a maxim that it is the duty accompanied by Lady Blake, Miss Blake, and Lord of the State to provide primary education only. Suirdale, and there were also present. among Secondary education does not, therefore, enter others, the Hon. F. H. May, C.M.G. (Acting Col- within the scope of the Kowloon school, which onial Secretary), the Hon. R. D. Ormsby (Direc❘ shall be a school in which an ordinary education torof Public Works), Mr. Ho Tung, Bishop shall be given of such a nature as to enable the Hoare, Drs. Hartigan, Clark, Thomson, and Gib- scholars to enter in the ordinary course for the son, Consul Volpicelli, Messrs. J. Dyer Ball, Oxford Local and similar examinations. As H. H. Gompertz, David Gillies, A. M. Marshall, observed by Mr. R. J. Wilkinson, acting In- G. Piercy, jun., A. J. May, E. Robinson, and spector of Schools in the Straits Settlement, in G. de Champeaux. A large mat-shed, provided his official report on the Educational Department with a gallery, and gaily decorated, had been just issued, let us look forward hopefully to the erected for the accommodation of the spectators. time when either the Oxford or Cambridge Mr. Ho TUNG, in opening the proceedings, junior and perhaps even the Senior certificate said: Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentle of either of these universities might be con- men, when we look into the future and see sidered "the proper leaving certificate" to be what possibilities may be brought in the train of obtained by boys before they quit school. In this simple ceremony to-day, I think there may so far as this result represents a more thorough a more careful be just cause for gratification that I have been knowledge of English and privileged to take the part that I am tak cultivation of the mind, it is very much to be In conclusion, let me ask your ing in the sphere of education in this de- desired.
to lay the foundation stone pendency of the colony of Hongkong. I feel, Excellency therefore, all the more grateful to your Ex- of the future Kowloon school, whence I cellency for having consented to lay the sincerely hope will flow yet another fountain May the European boys foundation stone of the Kowloon School this of knowledge. afternoon. Kowloon, until within very recent and girls resident in the Peninsula derive years, was only a suburb of Hongkong, with their full measure of benefits from the Kowloon picturesque country houses, green lawns, and School, and may it help to feed the streams that well laid-out gardens, verdant with semi-tropical work for the dissemination of knowledge and foliage. But times have changed and Kowloon shed the rays of light such as we understand by has changed with them. From a quiet, residen- modern civilization amongst the many millions
MR. HO TUNG'S GENEROSITY.
One of the most pressing wants experienced by the residents of Kowloon has been a day school to which they could send their children. The matter has been talked over for years, but no way out of the difficulty was apparent until Mr. Ho Tung came forward and generously offered to provide $12,000 for the erection of a suitable building if the Government would give a site. Needless to say this offer was readily accepted. A capital site at the corner of Kimberley Road and Robinson Road was soon forthcoming. Messrs. Palmer and Turner prepared the plans, and now the building of a school which will ac- commodate some 200 children is being rapidly pushed forward.
with
a gift of a secondary school, where education will be proceeded with-not an education merely of the cultivation of memory, but an education where the mental and moral powers will be fully developed. (Applause.) Mr. Ho Tung in his address mentioned the great crisis through which the people of China are passing. He attributes it, and I think rightly, to the ignorance and the darkness by which these misguided people are enveloped. Even now, ladies and gentlemen, when we are tortured with anxiety to know the fate of those who are shut up in Peking, and when every is being ploughed by the keels of sea hurrying vessels carrying from all the great powers tens of thousands of armed men to effect a rescue or, if unhappily the worst fears should be verified, to exact a stean retribution for the greatest and bloodiest international crime of history, even now let us hope that when the allied armies have shattered the pretensions to occult powers of those mad fanities now rushing on to their doom and brushed aside all armed opposition, let us hope that when the thun- ders of a just retribution have died away the dawn of a new era may arise for the people of China---(applause)and that they may awake from the unreceptive salumber of 4,000 years. When that day comes, a day which we may not and probably will not see, then the people of China must, if they accept progress, accept it from an education such as ours, which teaches men to think and not merely to accept, to originate and not merely to copy, and to call from the world around them those priceless gems of knowledge which lie at the fat every man whose eyes are opened by a trained and educated intelligence. Again, Mr. Ho Tung, I thank you on behalf of the com- munity for this school which you have so gener- ously given, and I hope, and I am sure the hope is joined in by everybody here, that in years to come the education here given will be a blessing to many men and women who will here drink the first draught of that knowledge which leads to power and if properly used to happiness and contentment. (Applause.)
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