TNAG-0334-FCO40-370-Visits-of-Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Af-1972 — Page 40

CONFIDENTIAL

Brief No 11

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE ISSUE IN HONG KONG

BACKGROUND

1. During the past eighteen months a campaign has been

conducted by certain elements in Hong Kong to secure the

recognition of Chinese as an official language in the

colony with a status equal to that accorded to English.

There have been Parliamentary Questions on the subject in

addition representations have been made to Ministers and to

the Prime Minister (in April 1971). These have been

answered by suggesting to the petitioners that they should

make known their views to the Committee which was set up

by the Hong Kong Government in October 1970 to go into the

whole question.

2. This Committee, which was set up under the chairman-

ship of Sir Kenneth Ping-fan Fung ( a member of the Executive

Council and a leading banker and business man) has presented

four reports to the Hong-Kong Government and, in brief, the

position in relation to these reports is as follows:

First Report (Submitted in February 1971)

This dealt with the provision of simultaneous interpre-

tation facilities in the Legislative Council, the Urban

Council and official Boards and Committees. Its recomm-

endations have been accepted in principle by the Hong

Kong executive Council and action is being taken to

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CONFIDENTIAL