CONFIDENTIAL
Brief No 11
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE ISSUE IN HONG KONG
BACKGROUND
1. During the past eighteen months a campaign has been
conducted by certain elements in Hong Kong to secure the
recognition of Chinese as an official language in the
colony with a status equal to that accorded to English.
There have been Parliamentary Questions on the subject in
addition representations have been made to Ministers and to
the Prime Minister (in April 1971). These have been
answered by suggesting to the petitioners that they should
make known their views to the Committee which was set up
by the Hong Kong Government in October 1970 to go into the
whole question.
2. This Committee, which was set up under the chairman-
ship of Sir Kenneth Ping-fan Fung ( a member of the Executive
Council and a leading banker and business man) has presented
four reports to the Hong-Kong Government and, in brief, the
position in relation to these reports is as follows:
First Report (Submitted in February 1971)
This dealt with the provision of simultaneous interpre-
tation facilities in the Legislative Council, the Urban
Council and official Boards and Committees. Its recomm-
endations have been accepted in principle by the Hong
Kong executive Council and action is being taken to
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CONFIDENTIAL