From Secretariat -° Ceritral Office -

In those comtries linguistic. minorities

may converse in their language, may have
newspapers in that language, may conduct
assemblies in that language. In some
countries linguistic minorities have the
right to conduct schools in a language
other than that of the majority.: In
other countries where various languages
are spoken by different groups of in-
habitants more than one language is
designated as an official language and
each language so recognized has equal
status. Racial’ minorities generally
possess full and equal rights of citi-

zenship.

In Sin awa dans the eh dhe of linguistic
and racial: minorities: a: distinction
must be made between four pee:

In the first cake there 1s the lin-
guistic or racial minority which son-
sists of citizens of other countries
who are temporarily resident in a coun-
try of another race or language. Rights
of such minorities are governed by in-
ternational practice, custom and law.

Then there is the linguistic and racial

group that has become a minority be-

cause some ceuntry inhabited by a people
of another language and race has seized
or has annexed the territory in which
that group lives and where its ancestors
have lived for a

Under Lae terms of the treaty effecting
such a transfer of territory the in-
habitants of the annexed territory gen-
erally are confronted with the choice
of leaving the territory or becoming
citizens of the annexing country. Gen-
erally the annexing country then en-

-.deavors to assimilate the minority.

This is one contributing cause to war,
for as that process of assimilation
proceeds, that minority is often cham-
pioned by people of its language and

race who constitute a neighboring county

A third type is the linguistic and ra-
cial minority which has become such be-
cause of its own free will it has
agreed that the territory on which it

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lives shall become a part.of a country
inhabited by people. of another language
and race and which, through union or

federation, accepts citizenship in the

enlarged country.

In the case of such minorities the act
of union:or federation generally con-

fers full and equal rights of citizen-

ship on the numerical minority and
guarantees any special rights they may
have with regard to perpetuation of ©
thet own ee Face.

Also ithe: is* ais linguistic and ra-
cial minority which consists of people
who have migrated individually or in
small groups to some other country
with the intention of becoming citi-
zens of that country. In connection

‘with such minorities the general feel-

ing is that so far as is racially pos-
sible they should be assimilated and
that if they can be so assimilated
they have no inherent right to perpe-
tuate a "foreign" element ——
after generation.

‘In countries where it is recognized

that the greatest virtue of a m jority
is tolerance there is also complete
religious freedom. ;

Any group which considers itself a
minority must exercise: discretion in
asserting that it has rights and in
demanding that those rights be recog-
nized. The majority must employ fair-
ness and justness in dealing with
minorities and in recognizing minority
rights. While the majority should .
scrupulously observe the rights of
minorities, those minorities, too,
should realize that they not only have
rights:. they have responsibilities too.

What are some of the minorities in our
country? What type of minority are
they? What rights do they have, should
they have? Does. the ee recognize
those rights?