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common efforts, they seek to redress by social and political reform some of the injustices which come to their attention.
It is indeed hard to find, Mr. Chairman, two finer representatives of this class of Britishers than in the persons of Brook BERNACCHI and Elsie ELLIOTT. Speaking as a Chinese member of this Council, I consider it a privilege to be able to count as my elected colleagues these two Britishers. It is a matter of significance that this motion calling for both Chinese and English to become the official languages of the Urban Council has been moved and seconded by two British Members of the Council. As an elected and a Chinese member of this Council, I applaud the good intentions of both Mr. BERNACCHI and Mrs. ELLIOTT. In the long term, I believe that it is a desirable goal that Chinese and English should be the official languages of Hong Kong. After all, about 99% of Hong Kong's population are Chinese and the most widely used language in Hong Kong is Chinese, whether the spoken version is Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghai, Swatow, Hakka, or other dialect.
In the motion under debate it is proposed that Chinese in the Cantonese dialect should become an official language of this Council, together with the English language. I am very much afraid, however, that the large number of Mandarin-speaking Chinese, who have been living in Hong Kong for the past ten to fifteen years and who are virtually permanent residents of Hong Kong, will take strong exception to the proposal. They will argue that it would not be fair to exclude the use of the Mandarin dialect when speaking Chinese in the Urban Council. After all, Mandarin is the national dialect of the 750 million Chinese on mainland China and in Formosa, and it is most widely used among the overseas Chinese in Asia. I have attended, Mr. Chairman, many international assemblies, for example, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, United Nations Associations, and United Nations seminars, and I can attest to the fact that the official Chinese language used by all these bodies is the Mandarin dialect.
Another aspect that is highly relevant to the motion is that if and when Chinese and English become the official languages of the Urban Council, the same principle will have to apply to Legislative Council, Executive Council, the Courts, and in all dealings between Government departments and members of the public. This, of course, will require a vast army of highly trained and efficient interpreters and translators, each of whom should be versed in Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as English, at the very least. Whether or not we have at present this array of talent is a matter for conjecture. It will take time. With Chinese and English as the official languages of the Urban Council, we will find that discussions and decisions in all select committee meetings will inevitably be slowed down. The Chinese Members of
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the Urban Council will, of course, find it more politic to speak in Chinese, and the regular Urban Council and Standing Committee of the Whole meetings could be lengthened, say, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. or mid-night with an hour off for dinner of course. This, it may be argued, is the price that must be paid for putting democracy into practice.
Mr. Chairman, while I support the principle of having eventually Chinese and English as the official languages of the people of Hong Kong, I feel that it is not a proposal to be embarked upon in precipitate haste and without careful assessment of the implications and practical difficulties involved. In this regard, I wish to put forward again two constructive suggestions which would be a start in the right direction. The first is the interpretation equipment for the public to which I referred during Question Time. The second suggestion is that the Urban Services Department and the Resettlement Department should on every occasion attach a Chinese translation to any reply made by either Department to a member of the public who writes to the Department concerned in the Chinese language. I have made this suggestion on previous occasions, but I do not think it is being consistently implemented, principally on account of both Departments not having enough translators. I shall ask for a review of this matter as soon as possible.
DR. P. F. Woo:- Mr. Chairman, like my friend Mr. CHEONG-LEEN, I do applaud Mr. BERNACCHI's motion. Both he and Mrs. ELLIOTT have spoken magnificently on the subject and I can only add that the motion is a very welcome one. My colleagues in the Civic Association are quite prepared to support the motion in principle, but we feel that there are many implications involved and they require time to consider. I move therefore that the subject of the debate be referred to the Standing Committee of the Whole Council for further study.
MR. LI YIU-BOR:- Mr. Chairman, I rise to second the amendment proposed by Dr. Woo to Mr. BERNACCHI's motion.
When Dr. Woo asked me to second his amendment, he insisted that my speech should be limited to five or six lines. Much as I would like to obey his august command as the somewhat dictatorial Chairman of the Civic Association, and although I am usually not half as long-winded as my friend Mr. Cheong-Leen is, I feel that I must say what I have to say on this occasion.
In the first place, I must say that Mr. BERNACCHI's motion is a very interesting and in fact a very stimulating one, which would gain wide support and which should deserve the most careful consideration. As you are aware, Sir, my friend Mr. CHEONG-LEEN is a keen advocate of bilingual notices and instructions, but as a classroom teacher of
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