UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1934-11-16_Page-022

139 (3) The Hostel: Only most energetic efforts saved the Hostel from being closed at the end of the year. The past year brought to it only fifteen students for the first semester and thirteen for the second. As this low enrolment involv-ed an operatingdeficit of L.E.2/+9.650 for the year, which more than exhausted the balance of reserve from the grants of the Egyptian Mission Property Trust (L.E.231.079) it was necessary to face up to a closing of the Hostel. Several important consider-ations seemed to justify unusual efforts to maintain the Hostel. There was the highly prized opportunity recorded by the Hostel contacts for influencing life and character, far beyond anything afforded by the mere day school contacts with the rest of the College enrolment. There were the implications of a lessened interest in the development of the College constituency from outside of Egypt. Finally, there were implications that if we cannot make this Hostel a success, the whole program for the future of a residential school seals to be challenged. These three conceptions -- emphasized character influences, an institution with influences beyond the limits of Egypt and the ultimate estsiishment of a sub-urban residential College -- all seemed at stake. The problem was therefore studied from many angles. As Mr. Galt pointed out, a major difficulty has been that rental had to be paid on the building we are using, increasing the cost to the student beyond what obtains in dormitories owned by a college and available free. Efforts were therefore made to remove this disadvantage. Bishop Gwynne generously waived one half of the rental for one year and the Trustees guar-anteed the balance by special cable. So the Hostel is to be operated again dur-ing 1934-35. Mr. V`4uertenberger will be housemaster. (4) The Dining Hall: With this year, the Dining Hall disappears from the College campus. Its operation in past years has caused more heart burnings and anxieties than perhaps any other single section of University administration. Doubtless this is a universal experience in colleges throughout the world, except in those few cases where an institution has been blessed with one of those rarest of supermen, a practical genius in catering. Personally I am inclined to think that our mistake has been in asking a Western mind to deal with Oriental prices and palates. This past year there was an operating profit of L.E.2.179 ($10.90) a small enough sum but on the right side. Credit is to be given chiefly to the superivIs ion of the Dining Hall by Mr. Naamani. This contrasts with a very heavy deficit of L.E.205.866 (t1,029.33) the previous year, which added to accumulated deficits leaves us L.E./+60.648 , 2,303.24) in the red. I see no alternative than to regard this as a bad debt. t would be a long story to tell of the efforts that were made each year in the hope of making the Dining Hall meet its expenses. For the coming year, the Hostel students will eat in a modest dining room at the Hostel with a very careful supervision of costs of such a reduced boarding venture. The big kitchen and big dining room on the campus will be closed. (5) Land and Buildings: (r.) Suburban Site: Last year I detailed various measures taken which were likely to result in a reduction of our losses in our agricultural operation of our suburban site. The major burden we carry is the heavy interest charges on our mortgage loans, $5,163.25 annually. I am glad now to be able to report substantial results from the measures taken. Where in 1932-33 our indebtedness advanced by L.E.931.655 (.14,658.26), during the past year, 1933-34, our indebted-ness has increased only L.E.258.370 (t1,291.85). Some of this is the result of arrearages in collections of rent, but sales of crops more than doubled and total collection of rentals (old and new) exceeded twat of a year ago by over tl250.O0 (b) City Site: I was commissioned by the Finance Committee to study the possible sale of land, suburban or city, to relieve the load of the Trustees in borrowed monies. These amount at present to 4'27,000 on the city site an