XN000022-1996-10-03 — Page 4

3.

Governor: I think the honourable lady has asked an extremely important question which I think though it raises a large number of difficulties, in a way misses what I have always thought is one of the most difficult problems of all, which is the translation of some of the concepts of the English Common Law into Chinese în a way which will be easily justiciable. Now I want to stress to the honourable lady that I believe that the point she has raised about the use of language in not just the proceedings of our courts but in the translation of the most important documents for the English Common Law, into the translation of learned journals, I think that is a subject which should receive priority.

And I also believe that she is right to put as much stress as she does on the training of lawyers in Cantonese where they don't already have that language. I think that if she wasn't such a fair-minded person she might criticise me and previous administrations for not having moved more rapidly in these areas, and particularly, perhaps, in the localisation programme in the past, though we have been trying to catch up on that as rapidly as possible.

All I would like to say at this stage is that I think she has raised issues of real priority and I will respond to her as soon as possible, as thoroughly as possible, having consulted the Acting Chief Justice, the Judiciary Administrator and the Attorney's Chambers.

Mr Choy Kan-pui (in Chinese): Mr Governor, in your policy address you use the words of many democracy fighters and revolutionaries and they include Tocqueville and Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, and Mandela of South Africa. Is it that you are trying to encourage Hong Kong people too, after 1997, to adopt a confrontational attitude and to go on the streets to campaign?

Governor: The honourable member has mentioned three individuals who I think are among the most admirable representatives of decency and liberal values in the history of the globe. So if I was encouraging people to take their example to heart, I am sure that there are few examples which would be better. I mean he could have mentioned, as well, great religious figures, but as far as political figures are concerned he seems to me to mention three who everybody decent should admire.

I have never regarded myself as a revolutionary. The honourable member should hear what my political opponents in the United Kingdom used to say about me. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Tory - no revolutionary here. But I do very much admire the Burmese Nobel Laureate who seems to me to have worked with extraordinary restraint and decency for the values which I believe in and I hope the honourable member believes in. I regard De Tocqueville, as I said yesterday, as one of the greatest political philosophers and I don't think many people could regard him as a revolutionary - rather less revolutionary than Karl Marx for example. And as for Nelson Mandela, I think that he has given the whole world one of the most important lessons in magnanimity over the last few years and indeed much of the prospect for rebuilding society in South Africa rests with his quite astonishing generosity of spirit.