To the Editor of the "Norra-Cuina Dairy News."
Sir,—I have read with great interest Mr. Warren's articles on British Universities for China." He has put the case for a revival of British educational effort in this country in a most convincing form. His articles are, perhaps, all the more convincing because of the studious understatement of his description of the sorry plight into which British education in China has fallen and of the urgent necessity of rehabilitating it, if Great Britain is to play a leading part—ov indeed to have any part at_al!—in the moulding of the New China which is slowly but surely coming into being.
To show that the case has been understated let us make a_ brief analysis of the situation in the three provinces of Kiangsu, Chekiang and Anhui, this being the area covered by the organization of teachers known as "The East China Christian Educational Association." With the exception of the four excellent Municipal Council Schools for Chinese in Shanghai (which strictly speaking are not British Schools) all the schools run on British lines within this area fall under the purview of this association.
The membership of the association itself, to start with, tells its own tale. Out of 200 members only 10, ie. 5 per cent. are British, the remaining 95 per cent. being American with a sprinkling of Chinese. This proportion reflects with some accuracy the comparative strength of the schools run on British lines within this area. In the three provinces there are 81 Missionary Middle Schools (as compared with 62 Government Middle Schools) three Junior Colleges and five Senior Colleges or Universities, these 89 institutions have about 6,000 students under instruction.
Of_these institutions only five are British viz., the Anglo-Chinese School and Medurst College (of Shanghai), Trinity College and the Ningpo Methodist College (of Ningpo), and the United Methodist College (of Wenchow). Only two of these institutions (ie. Medhurst College and the Ningpo Methodist College) attempt any work above middle school grade. About 700 students (ie. 8} per cent. of the total number of students to be found in Missionary schools of these grades) are under instruction in these schools. As far as I can ascertain there is no girls' school vf full middle school grade carried on on British lines within these three provinces.
Representing as they thus do less than 10 per cent. of the Secondary and Collegiate education afforded by Protestant Missions, to say nothing of that given by the Catholic Missions and by the Chinese authorities, it is no wonder that these five schools, ill-equipped and understaffed as they are, are find-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.