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21. There is a division of opinion as to whether the official
:
language of the Council should be English or whether the Council should
be bi-lingual, both English and Chinese being used.
Advocates of bi-
linguality are of the opinion that persons of value as Councillors will
be excluded unless the use of Chinese is permitted, but others are of
the opinion that there are so few Chinese residents who would possess
the other necessary qualifications and who do not know English that
only relatively few persons who could make any valuable contribution
would be excluded. There is no doubt that the use of Chinese in
addition to English would more than double the time taken by the meetings
of the full Council and of the Committees. The provision of interpreters
would be a costly matter and the translation into Chinese of the minutes
of meetings and the documents with which Committees would be required to
deal would involve both time and expense.
Among the younger generation
of the Chinese, and particularly amongst those who have participated in
the public life of the Colony either by serving on public bodies or on
the Committees of the numerous charities, ignorance of the English
language is so rare that I feel that any loss of the few who speak only
Chinese and who might be able and willing to serve would be far more than
I am accordingly made up by the gain in expedition of the Council's work.
of the opinion that English alone should be the official language of the
Council.
22.
I turn now to consideration of the actual methods by which
Councillors are to be selected. As I have stated in paragraph 16 above
my recommendation is that two-thirds, that is to say twenty, of the
members shall be directly elected, and that the remaining ten members
shall be nominated.
23. Dealing first with the method of selection, I will set out what
I consider should be the qualifications of voters and will then discuss
⚫ the manner in which the franchise should be exercised.
24.
(i) Age.
Voters should be not less than twenty-five years
of age.
This is regarded by the Chinese as the
age of responsibility, and there is a general
measure of agreement with this proposal,
although other age limits have been suggested.