Page 166 of 312
308
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Many of my colleagues on this Council are Chinese and their native language is Cantonese. Without reflection on their capability in English (and I wish my Chinese could compare with their English) I feel there are times when they might express themselves more freely in Cantonese, which is their own language.
Apart from our present Members, who would not have been on this Council if their English had not been of high standard, I feel that there are capable and public-spirited men in Hong Kong who could take their places on this Council if it were not for the language barrier. Why should such men be penalized because they preferred to study their own language rather than English? I believe that character is formed through the language and culture of one's own country, and by demanding a high standard in English as a qualification to enter this Council, we are automatically excluding some of the best and most learned of the local Chinese citizens.
The fact that the Government has sponsored the formation of a Chinese University is an admission of the importance and, in fact, the necessity to provide the highest possible education in the language of the local people. It would be contradictory to the principles on which the Chinese University was founded if this Council were to bar the most educated men and women from the new Chinese University from taking their places on this Council.
With these words, I second the motion of Mr. BERNACCHI before us this afternoon.
DR. R. H. S. LEE:- Mr. Chairman, I am surprised, like my friend Mr. BERNACCHI, that a motion has not been presented to the Council earlier, because several months ago in a supplementary question which I asked you as to whether Chinese should not also be an official language of this Council, you said in your own reply that there was no demand for it. I am sure that I am right when I say that more than 90% of the people in Hong Kong are Chinese and understand the language better than English. For this reason alone, and in view of what my friend Mr. BERNACCHI has said when he moved the motion, I consider that Chinese should be made an official language.
If we only look round the streets with our own eyes, we see the great variety and the number of Chinese newspapers that are on sale in the stalls, and they exceed English-language newspapers by 9 or 10 times, if not more. Moreover, assuming that only 40% of the Chinese population are literate, we have, according to our population statistics, more than 1 million people who are capable of understanding and reading Chinese. So I support the motion for this very reason and in view of the fact that the Council will be enlarged by an increase of 4 Unofficial Members, and I hope by some Official Members as well,
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
309
on which I will later make some suggestions in the Standing Committee of the Whole. It clearly calls for a chamber much bigger than our present chamber, for as you can see, Mr. Chairman, Mr. BERNACCHI has earlier on drawn your attention to the fact that some people were standing because there were not enough seats for them. It is high time that this Council's powers and personnel were enlarged to cope with the problems that are presented to us as an Urban Council,
With these views and remarks, Mr. Chairman, I fully support my friend's motion.
MR. K. A. WATSON:-- Mr. Chairman, I hope that this motion does not indicate a new political coalition, an off with the old and on with the new,
the dropping of the Civic Association, and an unholy alliance with, or even a taking over by the United Nations Association of Hong Kong.
This idea has, of course, much merit, but I do not think that the proposer and the seconder have fully considered the tremendous waste of time and labour which would be involved. Every speech, not only in this Council but at all the select committees and all the Housing Authority committees would have to be interpreted, and every paper (and Members know how many thousands are issued every year) would have to be translated.
I myself would be loath to inflict my Cantonese upon you. I would be even more loath to have Mr. BERNACCHI's much more fluent Cantonese translated into indifferent English (Laughter) in place of the rolling phrases and orotund oratory to which we are accustomed.
In view of the practical difficulties, the Appointed Members will be happy to support a motion which, I understand, is to be proposed, to refer this matter to the Standing Committee.
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, in rising to speak to the motion which has been moved by Mr. BERNACCHI and seconded by Mrs. ELLIOTT, let me say first of all that I applaud their good intentions which have led to this motion being included in to-day's agenda of the Urban Council.
It is one of the blessings of the British Colonial system that wherever there is a British Colony, a serious effort is made to transplant British liberal traditions and parliamentary practices to the people of that Colony. Quite often the instruments of such transplanting are some of the Britishers who spend most of their lives out in the Colonies, and to whom the Colony of their choice has become their second home. They may come from different professions or vocations; they may be lawyers, missionaries, doctors, social workers, etc. Through their
Page 167 of 312
310