WHEN Dr Sun Yat-sen, the first president of China, returned to Canton in triumph in February 1923, he stopped off in Hong Kong. He received an enthusiastic welcome. Dr Sun had studied medicine at Hong Kong University when he was a young man. On his return,he was invited to speak at his old University.
Dr Sun described Hong Kong University as his intellectual birthplace. He explained that when he returned home during his vacations he was horrified by the corruption in China. There was disorder instead of order, insecurity instead of security.
There was laughter when he explained that he even had to be his own policeman and had had to see that his rifle was in order. He explained that Heungshan, where he lived, and Hong Kong, were only 50 miles apart. He said that he got his revolutionary ideas entirely in Hong Kong.
Dr Sun told the audience how his organisation overthrew the Manchu Dynasty 12 years earlier and established a republic. He explained that they had not succeeded very well with the republican form of government yet, because the movement had not run its full course.
His final statement expressed sentiments one would not have expected from the founder of the Chinese Republic: ''My fellow students; you and I have studied in this English Colony and in an English University and we must learn by English examples. We mustcarry this English example of good government to China.'' In addition to running Dr Sun's speech, the Hong Kong Telegraph of that day carried a front page story of a $6 million British loan to Dr Sun. It claimed that the money would only be available if Dr Sun agreed to abandon Bolshevism and sever all connections with the Labour Unions.
There is speculation among cynics that Dr Sun's splendid pro-British speech and the $6 million loan were not entirely unconnected.