Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
DRAFT
SUBMISSION
To:-
Mr Wilford
Sir L Monson Mr Logan
Type 1 +
From
Mr Laird
Telephone No. & Ext.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
.In Confidence
CHINESE LANGUAGE ISSUE IN HONG KONG
Department
1. The Minister may wish to see the attached paper,
prepared in Hong Kong, which sets out the position
reached by the Hong Hong Government as at 24
November 1971 in its consideration of the 4 reports
presented by the Chinese Language Committee.
2.
The first of these reports has been considered
by the Executive Council who accepted its
recommendations in principle. The second report
•
is "nearly ready for submission to Executive Council"
and it appears that its recommendations will likewise
be recommended før acceptance in principle.
3. The recommendations in these two reports are
probably the easiest for the Hong Kong Government to
accept since they involve no particularly awkward
questions of principle and the difficulties in
implementing them are mainly due to the need to
provide the necessary physical facilities (eg
interpreters and equipment). But the third and
fourth reports raise more difficult issues in that
the latter recommends that English and Chinese be
declared to have equal status and that Chinese be
promulgated as an official language in the Colony
together with English. The implications of accepting
these recommendations require careful study, particularly
/in
(145181) Dd. 737490 750M 1/71 Hw.
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