A Memorable: Lecture by Professor Roxby Despite the holidays and other circumstances that threatened to sailitate against it, Professor Roxby's address to the Literary Section and their friends at the Carbon Cafe on Monday last must be recorded as one of the most successful meetings that the B.W.A. has so far had to chronicle. d Those ladies responsible for its initiation and carrying out of the arrangements are to be congratulated most warmly upon having acted as a medium between this distinguished lecturer and an audience which in cluded many who might not otherwise have had the privilege of hearing his views on the educational position in China. The subject is one that is uppermost among mest of the thinking people, be they Chinese or foreign, to-day and the impressions and experience culled by Dr. Roxby during the months spent in examining educational systems in China, as one of the two British members of the Commission now at work in this country, proved as interesting: as they are valuable.
Dwelling upon the immense pro-gross in the manner in whicl Western education has come to be regarded by the official and governing classes in China during the past couple of decades, Professor Roxby mentioned Shansi as the most developed province from an educational standpoint and the enlightenment of its Governor as being in the main responsible for this condition, where to-day 50 per cent. of the villages have primary schools and all boys and nearly all girls have the chance of modern -education.
Dr. Roxby proceeded to make most effective plea for tolerance on the part of the foreign community towards the student class in China, urging them, in short, to "mark the hits as well as to count the misses." The student class, he claimed, as a whole best represents China; that from them as a whole he had gained the un pression that there ts among them a real feeling of responsibility; and that from them will surely come the future leaders; of China. "How the student activities will develop depends upon how they are directed and upon what influences are brought to bear upon them. Here is where the foreign attitude is significant.' The foreign community can, the lecturer stated, help enormously in; record to the future of China if it will extend its sympathies, show its realization of their difficulties, (not being captious and censorious) to the student class of this country.
The audience, nearly 200, which comprised some of the leading educationalists, both British and American, in China listened with rapt attention to Professor Roxby for upwards of an hour, at the end -of which a very cordial vote of thanks was accorded to him at the instance of Mrs. Ayscough, who in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.