Wednesday, August 2, 1972
URBAN COUNCIL INTERPRETATION FACILITIES READY NEXT MONTH
The Acting Colonial Secretary, the Hon. M.D.A. Clinton, said today
facilities for simultaneous interpretation in the Urban Council were being
installed and should be ready by the end of next month.
He was speaking in the Legislative Council while moving the second
reading of the Urban Council (Amendment) Bill 1972.
He said the main purpose of the bill was to enable members of the
Urban Council to address the Council in either English or Chinese.
In May last year, he said, the Government accepted a recommendation in
the first report of the Chinese Language Committee that simultaneous interpretation
facilities should be made available in the Legislative and Urban Council Chambers.
Speaking in support of the Bill, the Hon. James M.H. u said that
politics and sentiments aside, there were valid and practical reasons to extend
the use and recognition of Chinese in official and other business.
He said the limited use of the language in both government and business
in a community overwhelmingly Chinese might be the root of widespread indifference
and apathy instead of a strong sense of community and belonging.
"In our industrial society of growing sophistication, Chinese must
assume an even more important position in internal communication, and the skill
of its use, in both the written and spoken way, must be sufficiently developed
to an acceptable level at school-leaving," he said.
Also speaking in support of the Bill, the Hon. H.M.G. Forsgate, said it
was hoped that the use of Cantonese in the Urban Council would stimulate a more
direct interest in the workings of the Council by the general non-English speaking
public.
"It is to the credit of the Chinese Language Committee that it quickly
realised the intense pressure building up behind this demand, and to the Government
for the speed with which it accepted the recommendations now being put into effect,"
he said.
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