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STAT.]

PROCLAMATION 3443-DEC. 28, 1961

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these great documents and thereby gain new strength for the long struggle against the forces of terror that threaten the freedoms which give meaning to human existence—the right to speak without fear and to seek the truth regardless of frontiers; the right to worship in accord with conscience and to share the strength and glory of religion with our children; the right to determine our own institutions of government and to vote in secret for the candidate of our choice; the right to justice under law and to protection against arbitrary arrest; the right to labor and to join in efforts to improve conditions of work; the right to unite with our fellows, without distinction as to race, creed, or color, in tearing down the walls of prejudice, ignorance, and poverty wherever they may be, and to build ever firmer the foundations of liberty and equality for all. I N W I T N E S S WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed. D O N E at the City of Washington this ninth day of December in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and of [SEAL] the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth. JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President: DEAN R U S K,

Secretary of State. Proclamation 3443 ESTABLISHING THE BUCK ISLAND REEF NATIONAL MONUMENT IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE UNITED STATES By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

WHEREAS Buck lsh\nd, situated off the northeast coast of St. Croix Island in the Virgin Islands of the United States, was included in the public, government, or crown lands ceded to the United States by Denmark under the convention entered into August 4, 1916, and proclaimed by the President January 25, 1917 (39 Stat. 1706); and WHEREAS all property thus acquired by the United States from Denmark, not reserved by the United States for public purposes prior to June 22, 1937, was placed under the control of the Government of the Virgin Islands by the act of June 22, 1936, 49 Stat. 1807 (48 U.S.C. 1405-1405c), with the legal title remaining in the United States; and WHEREAS Buck Island was not reserved by the United States for public purposes prior to June 22, 1937, but has been owned by the United States continuously since the convention with Denmark in 1916;and WHEREAS Buck Island and its adjoining shoals, rocks, and undersea coral reef formations possess one of the finest marine gardens in the Caribbean Sea; and WHEREAS these lands and their related features are of great scientific interest and educational value to students of the sea and to the public; and

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December 28, i96i

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