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Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues:
Because I am the Vice Chancellor of the oldest of the foreign universities represented here today,I have been chosen to speak on their behalf.I am pleased to be their voice in presenting our heartfelt congratulations to the professors, teachers, researchers and students of Peking University on the 100th anniversary of its foundation.
Our universities form a great intellectual community round the world. Science has no nationality; knowledge belongs to everyone.
Our universities create new knowledge. They teach this knowledge,together with that of other universities and also the best of the great storehouse of knowledge, which those who came before us have uncovered, tested and accumulated.
All universities contribute to the prosperity and success of their country. They also conserve the cultureand inheritance specific to their country’s civilization. But, they do more. Knowledge is secure only when it is hard won by the independent tests of accuracy,
rational explanation and truth. So, when we teach our students skills, we also give them values. On the one side, these are values for personal and civic conduct. On the other side, these values underwrite the personal need for independent understanding which is the source of human creativity.
These duties give universities a high responsibility. They are rooted in a great and fine tradition of honesty, free fearless enquiry and independence. Each university is a beacon of light in its own society and,by its association with its sisters, its knowledge and its values are spread wide.
A tradition is not built easily or quickly. During one hundred years, Peking University has been fashioning its tradition. Present and future members of the University! We hope to see you elaborate and consolidate your tradition. We hope to see you become a keystone of the intellectual community. In your next century, we hope to see you contribute to the international academic movment as a whole, as more and more of yournumbers come to participate in the activities of your sister universities.
Congratulations, Peking University on your first century of achievement!
