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Committee of the Hong Kong Federation of Students are
seeking Mr Royle's views specifically on their request
that legislation be enacted to provide that both English
and Chinese are made "official languages of Hong Kong,
equal in status, with the usage of the Chinese
language defined in specific areas".
5. The four reports submitted by the Chinese
Language Committee were presented to the Governor and
it is accordingly for the Hong Kong Government in the
first place to consider the recommendations in those
reports. We know that the Governor in Council has
accepted in principle the recommendations contained
in the Committee's first report. (These involve,
inter alia, the provision of simultaneous inter-
pretation facilities for the Legislative and Urban
Councils as the first step, to be followed by the
provision of similar facilities for Boards and
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Committees "utilising the services of non-English
speaking persons") But we do not know what stage has
been reached by the Hong Kong Government in its
consideration of the recommendations contained in the
remaining three reports submitted by the Committee.
It would, I suggest be inappropriate for the
Minister to express any views on the matters raised
by the Language Action Committee of the Hong Kong
Federation of Students pending the outcome of the
Hong Kong Government's deliberations on the
recommendations made by the Chinese Language Committee.
It is clear from the four reports submitted by that
Committee
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