Reference
Summary of Main recommendations and findings of the
Chinese Language Committee
First Report.
Simultaneous interpretation in English and Cantonese (and possible Mandarin at a later date) should be introduced in open meetings of Legislative and Urban Councils, and that similar facilities should be provided for Boards and Committees with non-English members.
Second Report.
Government's policy of equality of use and status (of English and Chinese) should be redifined.
A Central Authority, headed by a senior officer, should be set up to oversee implementation of official policy in the use of Chinese.
The Organizational Surveys Unit should be revised and strengthened. It should examine all existing forms (used in Government) to ensure that lay our etc. assist the aims of bilingualism, and design all new forms that may be required.
Letters received in Chinese shaild be answered in Chinese. Major documents, e.g. the Hong Kong Annual Report, should be published in both English and Chinese.
Third Report.
Chinese cannot be given equal status with English in the Courts.
All Bills and Ordinances (including subsidiary legis- lation) should in future be published simultaneously in English and Chinese. Existing Ordirances and subsidiary legislation should be translated into Chinese in stages, over a period of perhaps 6 to 8 years. In the case of discrepancies the English version should prevail. At the discretian of the presiding magistrate, oral procedings in lower courts should be conducted in Cantonese, English, or both. But in higher courts present system should continue.
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Courts should be allowed to dispense with certified translations of documents originally in Chinese and to consider the original document. Where certified trans- lations are required they should be prepared at Government expense.
Court records should continue to be kept in English.
Fourth Report.
The Government should train a class of specialist Interpreter/Translators. The Interpreter Translator Grade should be administered by the Central Authority (see Second Report) instead of the General Grades Division as at present.
The Director of Education should examine ways by which the standards of English and Chinese in secondary schools may be equalized and improved.
/Chinese
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