dated November 7, 1951: India-China amity

On the 5th, President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, also Vice- Chancellor of Delhi University, conferred at a Special Convocation, honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters on Mr. Ting Si-lin, leader of a Chinese Cultural delegation, and Professor Fung Yu-Lan, internationally reputed Professor of Philosophy.

The Chancellor, officers of the University, and the recipients-to-be of the degrees were warmly cheered as they came in procession. Dr. Ram Behari, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, gave a brief biographical account in Sanskrit of Mr. Ting and Professor Fung. Mr. Ting (58), educated in China and in Britain, was Vice-Minister of Cultural Affairs in China, and a physicist of repute. Professor Fung (56), a native of Hunan, had studied in China and in the United States, worked as a Visiting Professor in Pennsylvania and Hawali Universities, and written many philosophical works. Dr. Prasad spoke in Hindi, with an Indian interpreter providing Chinese translation.

Welcoming the visiting scholars, Dr. Prasad said that he was happy that the contact between the two renowned countries of ancient times, broken some 900 years earlier, was being re- established. He observed further, ``I have no doubt that there is much that we can give to each other; but there is one thing that you can give us in abundance - I refer to thousands of Sanskrit works which are lost in India, but can still be had in translations made into Chinese or Tibetan. I have no doubt that a study of these will reveal much that is at present obscure. ... Our two nations again revive close ties, and proclaim the value, stability, and greater durability of those silken bonds which bound India and China and other countries for a millennium and more, and which left their indelible mark on the life of the people at large. I attach great value to missions like yours. I confidently look forward to the time when cultural visits between China and India will become as fruitful as in the past, and pave the way for a reign of peace which the world needs more than anything else.''

On behalf of the recipients, Mr. Ting said that he, his colleagues, and China felt greatly honoured on receiving degrees from an institution of high learning in India.

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