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Sir L Monson
Parliamentary Unit
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1.
The attached Parliamentary Question is one of two
inter-related Questions put down by Mr James Johnson for
written reply on 1 December. The Parliamentary Unit have
however asked that the draft reply should reach them by
noon on Thursday 2 December (this was to give us more time
in which to consult the Governor of Hong Kong).
2. A draft reply is attached.
It is based on the
information in Hong Kong telegram No 896.
3. Since last year a campaign has been conducted by certain
elements in Hong Kong to secure recognition of Chinese as an
official language in the Colony and in October 1970 the Hong
Kong Government set up a committee to enquire into the whole
matter.
4. The Committee has now submitted 4 reports to the
Government, the last of which was presented in July 1971.
The Government have already accepted in principle the
recommendations in the Committee's first report (these
concern the use of Chinese in Legislative and Urban Council
proceedings together with the question of providing the
necessary attendant facilities for simultaneous interpretation):
they are still considering the remaining three reports, one
of which concerns the use of Chinese in court proceedings.
During the past twelve months the Chinese language
5.
issue has been the subject of representations from various
quarters and in November and December it was the subject
/of