Bulletin Vol. 6 No. 5 Mar–Apr 1970

A l l universities East or West, from where any man stands to face toward his east or west or toward his past or future, are new universities. Your university has passed the mid-mark o f a century's existence. The Chinese University of Hong Kong has passed the mid-mark of one decade. Together with other universities of the world, they are all new because they are summoned to the same task. An d this task is as yet not fully clear. Wi th the decline of tradition East and West, the university so often has no ally. To be rooted in the tradition of the community is no longer meaningful. Indeed Asia has become the storm centre of the world, that centre having moved f r om Eastern Europe t o the Atlantic and now to the Pacific. We cannot shrug off the new academic exercises of poster writing and rioting with an oversimplified theory of reaction against tradition. A t the deeper level students and whole communities are appealing to the university for man's greatest need 一 something by which and for which intelligent youth can live. Possibly they are pleading for the one thing we have failed to give: inspiration. I n this increasingly strange, new world, the university must define its own proper functions. It is not a substitute for tradition, not a secularized church. But in its own way, by its own proper means it must offer something more than knowledge. It must at least provide that kind of knowledge that is "distilled experience" or "heightened consciousness". Everyman lives on an island. Everyman longs for another island where all that is cherished is preserved, all that beckons, guaranteed. There is no such island, no t even in Hawaii. But here, possibly more nearly rea l than either in Eurasia or your mainland, is that island, that university. Through self-denial Hawaii becomes self-sufficient. By opening up the shores to East and West, Hawaii is no longer insular. It is only natural that the University of Hawaii becomes the Centre of East and West, in name, in spirit and in deeds. It also follows that by bringing East and West together, a focus can be found, leading eventually to the discovery and creation of new perspectives and purposes for the needs of community and its youths. The Chinese University o f Hong Kong , by virtue of its name, is very representative of the East. But Hong Kong is an important international city at the other side of the Pacific. Thus i n outlook and methodology, our University also represents the progressiveness of the West. Hopefully, we follow the splendid example set by the University of Hawaii to integrate East with West more harmoniously. Hopefully, we fulfil our humble share of the gigantic and unprecedented task of providing purpose and meaning to our youths who need spiritual relief and intellectual rehabilitation as badly as any war-torn nation in the world. May I lay upon the Universit y of Hawaii the charge to be a leader in such an intellectual and spiritual resurrection in the 70's. M r. President, let me bring you the salute f r o m the East! Pub l i c Lec t u r es g i v en by W o r l d H i s t o r y Consu l t an ts Three of the world's best-known historians, Si r Herbert Butterfield, Prof . Cho-yun Hsu and Prof. William H. McNeill, accepted the invitation of this University to act as consultants on the Wo r ld History side of its History programme. Under the sponsorship of this Universit y each of the three historians gave a public lecture at the City Ha ll during the period of the consultation, 16th to 30th March, 1970. Prof. Noah E. Fehl, Professor of World History of the University, presided at the three lectures. Sir Herbert Butterfield, sometime Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Master of Peterhouse and Regius Professor of Modern History, has already established ties wit h Hong Kong. The University of Hong Kong conferred upon him his 12th Honorary Degree in 1961 and one of his score of outstanding publications, Christianity and History, was translated into Chinese as a text for Chung Chi College students. Sir Herbert lectured on "Universal History and the Comparative Study of Civilizations" on Wednesday, 18th March . Professor Cho-yun Hsu, b om in Wu-Shih of Kiangsu Province, heads the Department of History and directs graduate study in History at National Taiwan University. He received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago after studying under Professor L i Tsung-tung in Taiwan and Professor H.G. Creel in Chicago. Professor Hsu i s an active Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Philology o f Academia Sinica. His recent publication, Ancient China in Transition, An Analysis — 4 —