XN000022-1972-06-26 — Page 1

P.R. 39

HONG KONG GOVERNMENT

NFORMATION SERVICES

DAILY INFORMATION BULLETIN

SUPPLEMENT

Monday, June 26, 1972

INAUGURATION OF 24TH TERM OF HEUNG YEE KUK

The following is the full text of the speech made by the Governor,

Sir Murray MacLehose at the above ceremony:

"I am very happy to take part in the Inauguration Ceremony of the

20th Term of the Heung Yee Kuk. Since my visit to the Kuk last December, I

have had a chance to visit several districts, and to meet some local Rural

Committee Chairman and to see for myself what is happening in the New Territories.

"I welcome this opportunity to meet all of you once again and, and

I emphasize this, to reiterate my interest in New Territories affairs.

'First of all, I would like to offer my sympathy to all those in the

New Territories who have sufferred in the recent rains. They are very much

all in our thoughts. I know any thing that government can do to alleviate

their suffering will be done. But today I do not want to look back to the

recent disaster but forward to the future problems in the New Territories as a

whole.

"In your speech, Mr. Chan, you mentioned the importance of equal emphasis

for rural and urabn areas. I would like to assure you that your government now

accepts the principle that so far as is practicable services should be spread

evenly throughout the whole of Hong Kong.

/"As I see