days. After becoming a statutory advisory body, the Kuk met regularly with the New Territories Administration to discuss local issues and influence government policies. Tension came to a head in 1971 when a gathering of a thousand villagers in protest at government Small House Policy was described by the New Territories Commissioner Denis Bray as a "village uprising". As part of administrative reforms proposed by McKinsey in 1974, the colonial government established the position of Secretary for the New Territories to communicate with the Kuk and prepare for development of the area. Over the years the organisation has dabbled in charity work. For example, in 1966 it donated HK$660,000 to found the Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School, in Yuen Long. The Kuk is almost exclusively operated by men. In 1994, legislator Christine Loh attempted to allow female villagers the same land-inheritance rights as men, but the Kuk protested, claiming that granting females equal inheritance rights would interfere with rural issues. The Kuk sent 25 members to London to protest against the bill, which eventually passed despite their protests. The Kuk was also involved with the Wang Chau housing controversy, where a planned development was downsized in the interests of the Kuk. Small House Policy The Kuk advocates for the Small House Policy, a male-only policy which discriminates against female villagers. According to Apple Daily, males are entitled to build a house, worth approximately US$2,600,000 at around a cost of about US$700,000. Some villagers own the land for five years, and then illegally sell it to developers in a process called "flipping." In April 2019, the High Court ruled that two out of three methods for obtaining a small house grant (private treaty grants and exchanges) would become banned. The Kuk threatened to ask Beijing for help if an appeal to the April 2019 ruling was not granted, in addition to spending HKD $30M on the first round of judicial review. Despite the Small House Policy being a generous government policy that helps male villagers obtain housing, Kingsley Sit Ho-yin, director of the Kuk's think tank, the Heung Yee Kuk Research Centre, said "Rural villagers have no responsibility to help the government solve the housing shortage. Villagers also face a land shortage. Why does the government not take back more land for us to build small houses?" See also United Front Work Department United Front (China) References External