347
and as
Your Excellency has considered it expedient to comply with the wishes of the Chinese Community in respect to direct communication with the Executive through the leolonial Secretary's Office, change
in which I entirely concur, it is of the greatest importance that the services
of a first class Interpreter should be
secured, by whom Petitions
be
may
translated into
English,
and
replies
-prepared in the lehinese.
At present
Jonly
NOW
given
objectionable
consequence
in
answers
are
which is
English as the Petitioners
are in
Ta
driven to employ Interpreter s
who from ignorance of that language may give somewhat erroneous versions of
the real meaning of the Executive.
ans weɅI
of the
Independent of the reasons thus
assigned for strengthening the staff of this Office by a Chinese Interpreter, I may point out that it is hardly creditable that the Governor of the Colony should be without
of communicating verbally
i
the means
in writing
in Mandarin or the local
or
dialects with Chinese Officials, Merchants
or Residents in the humbler walks of life.. As regards any
extra expense
which would necessarily be incurred in the Colonial Secretary's Office I think that some considerable
saving
should
result in the Registrar General's departiment from the Aransfer of much