TNAG-1782-FCO40-2542-Hong-Kong-births--marriages-and-deaths-Guardianship-of-Mino-1988 — Page 28

MT ZADD

CONFIDENTIAL

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

S Ying Esq

General Duties Branch

Government Scretariat HONG KONG

Dear Stanley,

Telephone 01-270 2657

file

10

Your reference SGD 5/08/1

Our reference HKC 223/1

Date

9 June 1988

нис 223

23/2

USE OF ENGLISH/CHINESE IN GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

1.

8

Thank you for your letter of 4 May to Graham Leicester about the use of English in official documents. Graham has now left the department and is on his way to the JLG Office.

2.

We have given further thought to this issue. We entirely accept your point that the question of the language used has a much wider application beyond administrative documents (eg birth, marriage and death certificates) to all government documents involving legal and administrative procedures.

3.

Our Legal Adviser's view is that there are both SAR, and UK aspects to this subject. As regards the SAR, JD 51, and Article 9 of the draft Basic Law, provide for the continuation of the use of English. In this connection, incidentally, the Basic Law is less comprehensive than the Joint Declaration, since the latter refers to the use of English in the "organs of Government", but the former refers to its use by "the executive authorities. "Executive authorities" is defined in Article 59 as "the Government" of the SAR, which could well be a more restrictive term than the "organs of Government". That is a point we shall need to take up yet again with the Chinese before the Basic Law goes firm.

4. So far as UK (and international) aspects are concerned, this is just one small item in a number of issues which we will need to take up, in due course with you, and in some cases the Chinese authorities, with regard to the continuation as between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom of various mutual advantageous procedures which exist because of the relationship between the UK and Hong Kong and our two laws. You are probably aware of a series of minutes prepared by Henry Steel (formerly of our Legal Advisers) on these issues which have been copied to General Duties Branch. We shall thus be bearing this point in mind to raise with you in due course.

CONFIDENTIAL