October 1.
Ir is most unfortunate that, arriving late in the field of edacational enterprise in China, Great Britain should find her energies in this direction handicapped by rival Hongkong has successfully lacuched appeals for her financial support.
a comprehensive scheme for a fully equipped university in the colony and although the Government has obtained a gratifying response to its appeal for funds from Chinese and foreigners in the Far Eust, the endowment fund still requires additional contributions and an attempt is being made to enlist the sympathy of the Home country. Simuitaneously the proposal to establish under British auspices a Chinese university in central Chioa has siderable backing of an if a native report ix to be believed, has so far progressed thut u site has already been parcbused "io Hankow." The Central Chinx University, if it is to materialize, will owe u considerable debt of gratitude to the Rev. Lord William Cecil, who has secured the ce operation of Oxford und Cambridge Universities. It sets out to break different ground from that which is to be covered by Hongkong University. The medium of instruction, if we understand the scheme aright, will be Mandarin Chinese, and the object is to enable China to obtain a university founded on sound lines in regard to modern education and, presumably, religious thought. In course of time, as the Rev. Arno.d Foster pointed out in a recent letter in our columns, it is expected that Chinese graduates: will take their places on the University Board and share responsibil lity for its future direction. It was probably this aspect of the Central China University, its establishment not only for the benefit of Chinese, but as un ultimate possorsion for Chinn herself, that led Sir Frederick Lugard to claim for the Hongkong University freedom from the risk of fulling under the deadening influence of Chinese officialdom. The fature alone cun decide this question; bat it mast be pointed out that, when the Hankow University is a working institution, the men whose naines mean s" much to-day for the inauguration of the scheme will be, if still living, removed by many thousands of miles from the personal direction of the everyday affairs of the University. Meanwhile the Chinese leaven will increase in influence, and, however uble and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.