Bulletin Vol. 6 No. 5 Mar–Apr 1970

and unprecedented task of relief and rehabilitation in war-torn China. Although one of us represented an international organization and the other the country concerned, our co-operation could not have been more harmonious and we never differed in basic principles. Now after all these years we have the opportunity and pleasure t o work together again —certainly not in the same locality bu t on both shores of the Pacific and o n the same endeavour of creating the best opportunities in which our youths receive their higher education. The nature of the task is different, but I am sure President Cleveland would agree with me that the challenge and the responsibility are just as complicated and difficult to fulfil. Before we face the future, let us take a look at the past. Sixty three years ago this University was founded. It became operational with five students and twelve teachers. Now with over 20,000 students, seven colleges, a graduate school and many research and service operations you will neve r again attain that standard. I n 1907 you had a rati o of two and one quarter teachers for every one student — a ratio to be envied by any university in the world. Over the course of 63 years your teacher- student ratio has shrunk to seven teachers for every 100 students. I promise I will keep this confidential. I would not want Hong Kong to know that its new Chinese University has a much mor e favourable ratio of teachers to students than this great American university. What these statistics really mean is that you have progressed from the training of a few elite to the education of all who are qualified to enter the university. Beyond this you have become a haven of opportunity for oriental peoples from all the western shores of the Pacific. And all those who have come to yo u could find former members of their own nations able to share with the m a large part of a common cultural heritag e whether they be Japanese or Portuguese, Koreans or Puerto Ricans, Samoans or Europeans. Envied by the world, you have united in peace, progress, prosperity and, above all, in a common sense of identity among your citizens, all who have come to your shores fro m the four seas and quarters of the world. You have become th e model cosmopolitan state, integrated not by force but by a common purpose. Your image in Asia is that of a successful society, uniquel y positioned in the world 一 geographically near the middle of the Pacific, yet a state of the United States of America —o r i en t ed politically and economically to a great world power and at the same tim e open to Asia. You are appreciative of the Asian past and sensitive to the new winds of change which now blow across the Pacific not as the trade winds, in one direction only. James Michener in his novel on Hawaii sensitively suggested that everyman has his island — his dream. But islands in reality may, as England for centuries, have been more interrelated with the rest of the world than great land-mass, continental nations that have remained culturally insular. In a way unique, Hawaii, and in particular its University, serves two hemispheres, several continents—perhaps more precisely, two worlds. You have been almost from the beginning in 1907 to 1970 a pioneer no t only in pineapples but in initiating and developing East-West university relations. Scholars of over a generation ago remember and have passed on through their students the inspiration of an inter-cultural sharing with which the name of your late Senior Professor Emeritus, Charles A . Moore is synonymous: your early outreach in his programme of 'Philosophy East and West'. That programme significantly inspired and involved several professors of my own university. Its merits were, in part at least, the basis of the new role which your University now plays. Through the world-famous East-West Center, you have already entered upon a new role as the mediator of the intellectual life of the opposite shores of the Pacific. You are now doing in the West what we of the member universities of the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning are striving to achieve. For us all the ultimate goal is not geographical, but in principle as well as fact fulfilling the role of all great universities of the past, a meeting place of myriad minds — and first of all of East and West. Much you have achieved — more you will achieve. On this occasion, as a new and distinguished president is assuming office, it is fitting tha t I should convey to you on behalf of our students, faculty staffs, and the universities west of the East- West Center (an area known as the Fa r East) our sincere appreciation of th e opportunities you have so generously offered. May I express the hope of my own and many other universities so fa r west of this furtherest western American university that you shall continue to be the state and the university of opportunity to our East. — 3 —