XN000022-1973-06-06 — Page 11

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Wednesday, June 6, 1973

This had been necessary, he explained, because advance notice in

this case "might have caused some of our more rapacious landlords to take

steps to squeeze out their existing tenants or greatly increase their rents

in advance of the standstill freeze,"

As it was,

the people who would lose out more than others because

of the legislation would be landlords of controlled premises.

Mr. Woo blamed the shortage of land as the cause for all. Hong Kong's misfortunes in the sphere of rental values and reiterated that it was essential

for the government "to give the utmost priority to further land sales and to making available large tracts of land for private development."

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