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Following is the full text of a speech (English only) by the Financial Secretary, Mr Donald Tsang, at the Speech Day of Wah Yan College this (Thursday) evening:

Father Deignan, Father Zee, Mr So, distinguished guests, fellow students,

Thank you for your very warm welcome; it adds to the pleasure and honour of coming to help celebrate your year's achievements and to speak to you.

I would like to talk this evening about courage.

First, I must admit to having to summon great courage in accepting your invitation to speak during this important event of your annual calendar. As many of you may know, I came from the 'other' school, which refers to yours also as the 'other' school. During my secondary school days, your college often filled me with admiration and envy - your much larger ground for soccer, your much bigger chapel. You have produced a string of community leaders including Martin Lee, James To, Ambrose Lau, John Chan etc. I have surveyed through the products of my school, and have found a few civil servants, very few to match yours. Luckily I found one worthy contender to glory in Hacken Lee. This discovery has bolstered my confidence to speak here.

For the past year or so, outside our schools, we have seen a wave of economic panic sweep across the region and around the world. Pundits have been proved wrong and our human frailties have repeatedly been exposed. They have been difficult times, for everyone, and have called on all our resources.

Courage is perhaps the outstanding quality that the times require. The word has its root in the Latin cor, which means heart.

Courage conveys more than mere bravery as the essence of a great spirit. It encompasses a greatness of heart as well as a disregard for any present danger. It implies the acceptance of personal sacrifice.

I believe our history demonstrates that courage is one of Hong Kong's defining characteristics.

For much of this century, Hong Kong has been a place of opportunity - and refuge. During the unrest in China during the 1920s and '30s, many people found shelter in Hong Kong.

Our population at the outbreak of World War II was estimated at 1.6 million and about half a million of them were thought to be sleeping in the streets. Life did not get any easier with the extension of full-scale war into Hong Kong.

The wartime occupation lasted for three years and eight months. Trade virtually disappeared, the currency lost its value, food supplies were disrupted, services were seriously impaired and many people moved into the Mainland.

The population was about 600,000 when the war ended in August 1945. Within five years it had swelled to about 2.2 million.

Coping with this took courage and intelligence, both from the government of the day and from the people who had to live under severe hardships.

For example, Hong Kong's public housing programme started with an emergency measure to rehouse some 53,000 people made homeless overnight in a squatter fire on Christmas Day 1953. It has developed into a comprehensive programme under which more than half of Hong Kong's families own their accommodation.

The authorities in this case did the right thing in an obviously urgent situation. It takes even greater courage to persevere at times when there is a vocal and well-organised opposition and the case has less obvious urgency.

Recently, the Hong Kong SAR Government decided to promote the use of the Chinese language in schools. The rationale is simple: it is the mother tongue of 95 per cent of the population, and a majority of our teachers can teach much better in Chinese than in English and most, if not all, our children can learn better in their mother tongue.

This is hardly the first time Hong Kong has witnessed controversy over education. Public education began in 1847 with grants to the Chinese vernacular schools. An Education Committee was set up and, just as we see 150 years later, a debate raged then in Hong Kong over whether it was more beneficial to teach the bulk of population in a language learnt at home from birth, or in a foreign language that predominated in commerce.

The HKSAR Government believes the mother-tongue policy is right, and that we should pursue it vigorously. Our task will be to ensure that the level of teaching, both in Chinese and in English, is maintained at the highest possible.

This establishment, Wah Yan Kowloon, was founded in 1924. The school motto "In Hoc Signo Vinces" itself stems from an exercise in courage and inspiration.

In 312 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine, a pagan at the time, had a vision in which he saw the Cross and these words superimposed on the sun.

He adopted the sign, the Cross, and he conquered at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, near Rome. The following year, the Edict of Milan mandated toleration of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

It took 20 more years of struggle, before he established his supremacy and founded the Byzantine Empire, which lasted until 1453.

Constantine became a Christian and was unusually tolerant for his day, allowing people to worship in their own way.

He also issued a new gold coin, called the solidus, which remained the standard of exchange for more than 1,000 years. Such solid certainty would be quite welcome these days.

Constantine had the courage throughout his life to admit his errors. People often find it difficult to do that, especially those in positions of power or influence.

These are the very people who should be quicker than most to acknowledge their mistakes. But facts often show a different outcome. So it is heartening to see one of Hong Kong's most popular newspapers, Apple Daily, come a few weeks ago straight out with a front-page apology and an admission of error. Honourable members of the journalist profession also came out to condemn that mistake.

That took a form of courage seen rather rarely in the news media, which had not at all times displayed a sense of fair play, moderation and wider community responsibility to match their freedom of speech. I hope this incident becomes a milestone in the development of journalism in Hong Kong.

A different, and total, sense of responsibility and selflessness was displayed only a few years ago when two teachers tried to lead their pupils to safety from a raging fire at Pat Sin Leng. They and three students died and 13 were injured but they got to safety and praised the self-sacrificing courage of their teachers.

Courage is an odd thing. It can't be taught or imposed from outside but it can be learnt from example. It comes from within, from our personal reserves.

The 19th century American writer, philosopher and naturalist Henry Thoreau observed: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." He meant most people carry on, displaying a special kind of courage, in the daily effort to raise a family, giving them shelter, food and education.

Most of us have to do this without any unusual advantage, without winning Mark Six. More than fables or fairy tales, the grandest displays of courage are to be seen in daily life around us. This is particularly true in the present days when economic recession prevails, and it tests the perseverance and ingenuity of each one of us. With luck, we absorb the lesson from our parents, those who have suffered the post-war devastation, much greater poverty and helplessness and pass it on to our children.

But make no mistake, the scintilla of courage is in each of us. We may allow it to remain dormant until we expire. We can also fire it up to help us to achieve higher and nobler goals. Few educational institutions in Hong Kong can rival the Jesuit spirit of honour and sacrifice which Wah Yan imparts to each one of us. This spirit acts as a furnace in our hearts throughout our lives. At rare moments of enlightenment and humility, it fires up our courage to bring forth a new world.

I will close with two thoughts on courage that I hope will inspire you, as they have inspired me throughout my working life, particularly in the dark moments tempting despair.

From the poet and Australian bushman Adam Lindsay Gordon:

"Life is mostly froth and bubble.

Two things stand like stone:

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in your own."

And, for thousands of years, people have gained strength from this passage in the Book of Joshua, (1 : 9):

"Be strong and courageous; don't be afraid, nor should you be dismayed: for the Lord your God is with you, wherever you go."

Thank you.

End/Thursday, November 19, 1998

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