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?tation going on in his Court.
THE CHINA REVIEW,
This ofrcum-
stance, combined with the fact that the Senior Police Magistrate, though not a Chi- nese scholar himself, has through his loug residence in Hongkong (since 1844) acquired a good practical acquaintance with Chinese modes of thought, caused some improvement of the interpretation in the Police Court. Nevertheless such is the pressure of work at the Police Court that a Magistrate is com- pelled to write down the answer given by a witness whilst the next question is being put to the witness through the interpreter, so that there is practically after all little checking of the interpretation possible. It so happens, thanks to the foresight of the Magistrates, that the native interpreters at the Police Court are efficient, at least in Cantonese interpretation, that one of them is a man of unusual ability, and that altogether the interpretation at the Police Court is far more accurate and intelligible than that of the Supreme Court; but the system of inter- pretation is as bad in the one Court as in the other. It is a matter of comparatively minor importance that in both Courts the interpreters, being Chinese in the Police Court and Macaese in the Supreme Court, are not sufficiently acquainted with English, whilst the interpreter in the Supreme Court is insufficiently acquainted with both Eug- lish and Chinese. The worst is that in both Courts the interpreters do not under- stand their own position. Instead of simply translating and literally but idiomatically rendering what is said, they frequently engage in lengthy off-hand conversations with witnesses, and put at their own insti- gation leading questions to witnesses, whilst of the replies thus olicited only so much as appears relevant or judicious to the uncul- tured minds of the interpreters reaches the ears of Counsel, Jury or Judge. Frequently also they do not only suggest to witnesses what they are to say, but-and this is especially the habit of the Supreme Court interpreter--bully, lecture, and scold wit- nesses for their stupid replies, called forth as
often by the incomprehensibility of the in- terpreter's unidiomatic speech or peculiarity of pronunciation, as by the mental inca- pacity
or intentional evasion on the part of the witnesses. The evasions, equivocations and other subterfuges which witnesses so often indulge in, and which in the case of English witnesses are at once noted by
· Connsel, Jury and Judge as a significant part of the evidence, are thus entirely lost. sight of in the ease of Chinese witnesses. On the other hand, Chinese witnesses are to a great extent in the bands of the inter- preter, on whose knowledge, jurlgment and discretion it depends how much he may retranslate or entirely omit of their evidence. The interpreters are also frequently wearied by hours of incessant interpretation or put out of temper by the impatience of Counselor Judge; moreover, having a reputation of their own to uphold, they frequently hesitate to acknowledge their inability to understand the peculiar local patois of a witness and prefer to supplement by guesswork what they cannot understand of the witnesses' evidence by actual know- ledge. The natural consequence of this state of things is that the mass of the Chinese population here suppose that justice in a Hongkong Court depends as much upon the good-will or knowledge of the interpreter as upon the legal acumen of the Counsel or the impartiality of the Judge. There is evident- ly here great need for reform with a view to check the interpretation.
So far I have only referred to oral inter- pretation in the Courts. Things are however, no better in the matter of documentary evidence, put in, with reference to
Bases pending, by either the Counsel for the pro- secution or defence. At present documentary evidence is translated for the use of the Court in either of two methods. In the one case the agreement or letter is produced by the client to his Solicitor, The Solicitor's Chinese clerk makes, with the assistance of the client, a translation in the best English within his power, never idiomatic, seldom a
CHINESE STUDIES AND OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION,
correct rendering of the original, and nearly always incomprehensible in part. The Soli- citer aces this translation and arrives by dint of conversation with his client and his clerk at a comprehension of the meaning, amends the English so as to make the thing read- able, and the translation so prepared is laid before the Court Interpreter, a Chinaman, who certifies it to be correct. If he has any doubt or diffioulty about the cor- rect rendering of any portion, he talks it over with the Chinese clerk of the Solicitor who prepared it. Unless there is some palpable blunder ho makes no alteration. Where the Solicitor himself has inserted a sentence in correct English, it is rarely ques- tioned, although it may not be in the Chinese original. Now it is clear that this is the translation of the party putting it in, and even if generally correct is sare to be modified by his special views and predis- position. Doubtful sentences are resolved in his own favour and shades of meaning take a different hue altogether, so that the document so translated reads as support- ing the case of the translator. If it cannot be made to read so, it is put aside. The other party has seldom an opportunity of inspecting this translation before the trial. If the Attorney General has a second trans- lation made, it is by his own Chinese clerk, and if his interpretation differs he has, in order to get his view verified, to come to the Court Interpreter who has already sanctioned a different interpretation, In the other alternative, the document is produced in Court on the trial, and is roughly translated then and there by the Court Interpreter, and a very rough translation it is, literal and in part incomprehensible; the other party sees it for the first time and has no means of examining it or checking its accuracy. Sometimes, even when documents are pro- duced for the first time, it is the interpreter of the one Solicitor or the other who makes the translation.
It is obvious that this mode of supplying translations of documentary evidence for the
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use of the Supreme Court is as little val- culated to promote the interests of justice na the manner in which the oral interpretation is conducted in the same Court.
III. I do not consider myself either called upon or competent to say in what way this, to a great extent, unsatisfactory state of official interpretation could be best remedied. But with a view to round off this article and also in obedience to the natural instinct, seeking to relieve the mind from the tension consequent upon continued thought on the subject by pronouncing a verdict and thus to have done with the whole subject, I venture, in conclusion, to suggest a few remedies.
In a case like this, where several good beginnings have already been made and practically been found efficient, no ingenuity is required to see what could or should be done to remove the evils still existing, nor is there any need for a new scheme. All that is required is to improve the machinery already existing and extend its application. That the Student-Interpreters' scheme, as organized by Sir Hercules Robinson, is in its main features sound, practical and effi- cient, has been demonstrated by the experi ence of the last fifteen years. But it might be improved in its mode of working by sending the candidates, selected by the prescribed competitive examinations. for two years or more to Oxford and placing them under the tuition of Professor Dr. Legge as unattached students of the Uni- versity. I bave urged this plan on another occasion (China Review, Vol. V., p. 262), and I have since learned from Dr. Legge that he has made exactly the same pro- position to the Foreign Office, offering to engage a native Pekingese teacher to assist him in the tuition of the Students to be placed in his charge. I have also reason to believe that the present Acting Colonial Secretary of Hongkong, the Hon. C. C. Smith, M.A., has on more than one occasion recommended the same plan to his superiors. There would be no need to trouble the
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