XN000022-1974-01-11 — Page 2

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Friday, January 11, 1974

OFFICIAL STATUS FOR CHINESE LANGUAGE

Chinese and English are to be formally made official languages

of Hong Kong under new legislation which will shortly be introduced into

the Legislative Council,

Both will have equal status and will be the official languages in

communications between the government and the public,

The Official Languages Bill 1974, published in today's gazette

also makes it possible for Chinese, besides English, to be used in Magistrates'

and Juvenile Courts, in Labour Tribunale and Tenancy Tribunals, and in

any inquiry by a coroner.

Commenting on the Bill, a government spokesman said today it

embodied the final and main recommendation of the Chinese Language Committee.

to confirm by law the equal status of English and Chinese.

"The recommendation has been under consideration since the report

of the Committee was published but it was felt inappropriate to change the

law until a pool of trained interpreters and translators was more readily

available to take up the important work," the spokesman said.

"Since last April when the Home Affairs Department took over the

administration of government translation and interpretation services, a

the Development, Training and Research Division

new division

A

has been

set up to improve translation standards, over and above a big expansion of

the Translation Services Divicion itself.

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"Ten new senior Interpreter/Translator and 28 additional Interpretor/

Translator posts have been created and two prominent scholars have joined

to head the two translation and interpretation Divisions.

"The use

I