TNAG-0305-FCO40-341-Use-of-Chinese-as-official-language-in-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 166

2

Section C: Importance of legislation

It is stressed that the use of Chinese should not be an act of gracious gesture on the part of the Government, but a right that the public could demand. The official status of the Chinese language should be given formal recognition by legislation.

The importance of embodying the status of the two languages, Chinese and English, in an Ordinance rests on the following:

(1) Whereas when Chinese as an official language is provided for in the law, any Crown servant who fails to comply with the law could be compelled by the Court to perform his public duty.

(2) Moreover, the 2nd Report of the Chinese Language Committee on oral and written communication of the Government with the public has stated that even the Government policy of giving the Chinese language "as near equality of use and status as is practically possible..."with English in official business as directed by the Colonial Secretariat General Circular 13/68 issued on the 30th March, 1968, and quoted from

His Excellency the Governor, Sir David Trench's, speech in the Legislative Council, has not been actually implemented by various Government Departments.

(3) The alteration of or addition to any legislative enactment requires the consent of the Legislative Council which should seriously deliberate on the matter. Any step falling short of making Chinese an official

language in an Ordinance would not have the same guarantees.

In conclusion the status of Chinese should be given effect in formal legislation.

Section D: Status and use

The Hong Kong Federation of Students wholeheartedly agrees with the Legal Sub-committee of the Chinese Language Committee "euqal status does not necessarily imply equal use in every single instance. Status denotes the rank of one language in relation to another, whereas use concerns communication". (Section A: Paragraph 8 of the 3rd Report of the Chinese Language Committee). However, in sharp contradiction to the above statement, the Chinese Language Committee has stated time and again that it is working on the principle of giving "as near equality in status and usage to the Chinese language as English."

We strongly dissent from this.