XN000022-1975-05-05 — Page 24

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At the two top tables the Queen and the Duke sat beside a wall

draped in scarlet and decorated with huge golden traditional figures

of a dragon and a phoenix. At the Queen's table sat the Governor, Sir

Murray MacLehose, Lady Gordon, the Bishop of Hong Kong, the Right Reverend

Bishop Gilbert Baker, a Lady-in-Waiting, Mr. C.P. Haddon-Cave, the

Financial Secretary, Mrs. Choa, the Chief Justice, Sir Geoffrey Briggs,

Lady Bramall and Sir Y.K. Kan.

At the Duke of Edinburgh's table sat Lady MacLehose, Sir Sidney

Gordon, Mrs. Baker, Dr. Gerald Choa, the Vicar Capitular of the Roman

Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, the Right Reverend Gabriel Lam, the

Colonial Secretary, Mr. Denys Roberts, Mrs. Haddor-Cave, the Commander

British Forces, Lieutement-General Sir Edwin Bramall, and Lady Kan.

Sir Y.K. Kan spoke, in Chinese and English, describing the Queen's

visit as a unique and important historical occasion, he said, "Our

community is over 98 per cent Chinese, and yet we believe ourselves to

be truly international; a community in which people of many nations and

races live happily and harmoniously together."

Hong Kong stood, he said, at the cross-roads of the Far East, and

since its foundation had been an important commercial centre. But today

it also enjoyed a reputation as an industrial centre, and its wares were

to be found in virtually every country in the world. It had no natural

resources in the normal sense of that term

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except perhaps that most

important resource of all: people, a people which prides itself on being

hardworking, adaptable and resilient.

/He went on .............