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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 13. 1964.

Royal Society Visits China

page 4

Royal Society Visits China

Recently, the Royal Society accepted an invitation from the Chinese authorities to send a small delegation on an exchange visit. The party of five that made the trip included a physiologist, a biologist, a physicist, a chemist, and a crystallographer.

The chemist of the group, Dr. Harold W. Thompson, recorded his impressions in the scientific monthly, International Science and Technology (New York, June, 1963). A fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, and university reader in infra-red spectroscopy, Dr. Thompson limits himself in his article to what he "saw and was able to evaluate directly."

"Broadly speaking," he begins, "we found a scientific community which still seems to be in the process of building a good foundation. These Chinese laboratories we saw are learning the use of modern methods by repeating known observations, rather than aspiring to much that is really new." Dr. Thompson emphasises, however, that among the youth of China there was always to be found "a marked keenness to learn."

"We made no inquiries about the Chinese programme in nuclear physics and nuclear energy." Dr. Thompson reports, "but it is likely that they have made considerable progress . . . perhaps with advice from the USSR."

He adds: "In this connection, I had the impression that exchange of scientists between Russia and China was a good deal less than previously. Inquiries about the whereabouts of individual scientists known to us earlier, suggested that they might be busy on important projects at special laboratories."

Dr. Thompson was told that there are 800,000 students at the university level in the whole of China. He was shown four universities which "presumably rank among the most advanced." three in Peking and one in Tientsin:

"It is risky to generalise, but my impression was that they were devoted almost entirely to teaching, with much emphasis on sociology and politics. As yet they seem to have little contact with scientific research or the frontiers of science."

Specifically, Dr. Thompson found Peking University "comprehensive, with 11,000 students and 2,000 teachers." There were said to be about 260 "graduate students," but "it was not very clear to me just what they were doing; perhaps they were junior members of the teaching staff." Here the equipment available for teaching physics "seemed good" to Dr. Thompson, "especially in electricity and optics." The laboratories for biology, however, were "oldfashioned, the main item being a museum of birds, animals, and reptiles."

The technological Tsing Hua University, Peking, is devoted to engineering (mechanical, civil, radio, electrical, and hydraulic):

"It has been reformed to a large extent on the basis of Russian advice. There are 11,000 students (which indeed seems to be regarded as a sort of norm) . . . saw a civil engineering and architectural department in which some designs by students for new buildings seemed very attractive. . . ."

The Agricultural University of Peking "is more like an agricultural college for the training of people who can go back to teach in the communes," Dr. Thompson says.

"The 3500 students, about a third of them women, are chosen by examination from all China, and many come from peasant stock. It seemed that the function of this university was to give a general training in agricultural matters, rather than to aspire to serious research. There was some work on genetics and animal breeding, but this appears not to have reached a more than elementary level."

At Tientsin, an industrial city and port, Nankai University was visited:

"The chancellor, an organic chemist trained in the United States, entertained us at lunch. Time at the university was very short . . . but the chancellor first read through an interpreter a lengthy prepared statement about the university. There are about 5000 students, a few 'postgraduates' and 800 teachers: it has been 'the mainspring of anti-American and anti-Chiang Kaishek movements.' We were hustled for a few minutes into the Physics and Chemistry departments, where there was some simple polarographic and spectroscopic equipment and apparatus for measuring absorption of gases on silica gel. There was really no signs of advanced research, and I also got the impression that as a teaching establishment it might not yet have reached a high level."

Dr. Thompson also visited research institutes of the Academia Sinica—two in Peking and three in Shanghai—and in general was more impressed with them than with the universities. He writes that the institutes "seem to be lively establishments in which many of the younger workers look very promising, although they are still feeling their way and have little contact with foreign scientists."

I.I.Y.A.

Mr. Hanan, one of the MPs who spoke to students last term. Others included Mr. Rata. Mr. Kinsella, Mr. Jack, Mr. McIntyre and Dr. Findlay. Mr. Hanan argued at length with questioning students on a wide range of political topics.

Mr. Hanan, one of the MPs who spoke to students last term. Others included Mr. Rata. Mr. Kinsella, Mr. Jack, Mr. McIntyre and Dr. Findlay. Mr. Hanan argued at length with questioning students on a wide range of political topics.