February 17.
Ir is three months since we called attention to the formation of a committee for the furtherance of the education of Chinese students in England, and we are lad to be able to record the fact Fiat no time has been lest by that body in setting to work. The keynote of the undertaking, as the Committee points out, was to encourage by responsive action in Great Britain the growing desire evinced by literary and commercial classes in China to send their sons abroad for education in foreign schools, universities and technical institutions. Owing to lack of accurate knowledge regarding the facilities that could be obtained for the education of Chinese, and owing to uncertainty as to the cost, of such education and the absence of definite information as to the revision of suitable schools and mes, the number of Chinese students proceeding to England has been considerably less than that of those who have been sent to countries where information on these and_ similar' points was available. What was Fegaired, therefore, was practical assistance to intending students in making them conversant with conditions prevailing in England, and this has already been afforded in some measure by the first report issued under the auspices of the new committee. The document gives in tabulated form the approximate cost of educating Chinese in England in various departments of study, including the medical, legal and engineering professions, schools and universities, railways, engineering works and shipbuilding yards. In each case the duration of the course is given, while the approximate cost is divided under two headings, educa~ tional fees and board and personal expenses. From this table it is to be inferred that the minimum estimate for the annual expenses of student is from £190 to £200, but we notice that a writer in the current number of " The World's Chi nese Students' Journal " is inclined to place the figure a little lower.
The Committee recommends that no student should be sent to England without at least an elementary knowledge of the English lan; and itis prepared to insist that no sectarian teaching shall be imposed upon students against the expressed wishes of their parents or guar~; The H.-C. Herald and S. C. & C. Gazette. dians. Further, a register of institutions prepared to accept Chinese youths has been compiled, as well as a list of families, private tutors and boarding establishments willing to receive them and to arrange for their board, lodging or instruction.
It remains for the practical work and the sound intentions of the Committge to be made as widely known as possible throughout, China. With this end in view the]. ce-operation of the Shanghai and Tientsin Branches of the China Association has been invited, and itis to be hoped that every institution and individual in position todo so will assist in furthering the object of the Committee. The benefits to be derived from the scheme are, frankly, on both sides. For the Chinese Western education in a Western land has many advantages over the best tuition on Western lines in their own country; in England they will find such location as efficient and practical as elsewhere, and probably cheaper. On the other hand our commercial interests should benefit from the spread in China of first hand knowledge of British methods and material. Our Chinese friends are' too great admirers of a quid pro quo to feel disappointment that our solicitude in this respect is not unimpeachably altruistic; and they will be ready enough to recognize that they stand to gain more than they are called upon to give. The work of familiarizing Great Britain and the Empire fo the Chinese has, simultaneously with the efforts of the London Committee, received promised impetus from an unexpected quarter. Messrs. Thomas. Cook and Sons have turned their attention to China and through the medium of the. Chinese Press announce that they are about to institute round-the-world tours for Chinese. The first of these journeys is to start in April from Hongkong; thence vid Canada to England, retaming by the Continent and Egypt. They are designed Lor purposes of education as well as of mero sight-seeing. Special attention will be paid to industrial centres and visits will be made to the principal factories in these towns. The cost of the five and a half months' tour is to be £350. For Chinese-who undertake such a trip knowledge of a foreign language will not be necessary, and it would be difficult to conceive any more potently instructive agency for the bulk of the wealthy classes whose lot being cast in provinces off the beaten track has prevented them from travelling much, even in their own empire.
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The example thus sot by Great Britain in placing facilities before China to enable her to adapt herself to modern conditions is likely to find numerous imitators. Already in President's Roosevelt's annual message to Congress we note that a paragraph is devoted to the subject, "This nation," he says, "should help in every practicable way in the education of the Chinese people.
One way of doing this is by promoting the coming of Chinese students to this country and making it attractive to them to take courses at our universities and higher ¢ducational institutions." The German Government on the other hand favours the establishment of a German training college in Kino-chou, in order that German influence may be spread simultane oonsly with the German language. Whether the refusal of the Reichstag to vote the appropriation of 375,000 marks for this purpose will divert the Government from its scheme remains to be soon; but it is more than probable that the latter will refuse to lose sight of the object it has in view. Comtition among foreign countries, however, will be the more advanttageous for China, and she may be expected to benefit by it, if there is trath in the remarks of the writer in the Journal already referred to;—"In _students, especially those educated in foreign countries, lies the salvation of our great empire; this is a view shared by not a few among our countrymen."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.