2. INTRODUCTION
Background
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2.2
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The idea of packing goods into special containers for ease of transport is far from being a new one but only recently has the container revolution gained impetus throughout the world. In Europe, with the ending of World War II, a number of redundant military landing craft were put into service conveying loaded lorries and containers between England and Ireland and England and the Continent. The concept of loading a container at a factory in one country and delivering it direct to a consumer in another was to both manufacturers and consumers a very attractive proposition. The services as a consequence expanded and the landing craft were soon replaced by ships specially designed to take roll-on/roll-off traffic and a limited number of individual containers on deck.
The benefits, however, of this type of operation were not so obvious for intercontinental trade where, because of the longer sea passages, the percentage time saved per round trip would be much less. Nevertheless in America where labour costs were high, it was calculated that by constructing specially designed ships for operation between specially equipped ports the advantages would be great provided that the loading and unloading of the ships and the marshalling of the containers was efficiently organized.
By 1955 special containerships were operating in services between America and Europe and America and Hawaii. Since then the number of container ports have proliferated until by the end of March 1969 there were 53 specially designed containerships in existence and 149 being built, while 98 ports had been constructed or adapted for full scale con- tainer operation, a further 58 were under construction and 46 were being planned.
With this revolution taking place throughout the world, it became clear that although the concept of containerisation was not ideally suited to Hong Kong, some facilities for the handling of containerships would have to be provided.
To investigate the implications of this conclusion a committee comprising Government officials, representatives of industry, shipping, and wharf and godown interests was formed.
The Container Committee
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This committee was appointed on 12th July 1966 by His Excellency the Governor “To consider the implications for Hong Kong's trade and industry of the recent rapid world wide development of container handling facilities for the port of Hong Kong and the method of their provision". It was known as the Container Committee and their report containing the following recommendations was placed before the Executive Council in June 1967:-
(a) that consideration should immediately be given to reserving 95 acres of unreclaimed seabed at Kwai Chung for a container terminal and in addition an area of some 20 acres should be reserved for a period of 5 years in the first instance to meet anticipated demands for expansion or associated storage facilities;
(b) that having regard to the fact that formed industrial sites in the Kwai Chung Valley were then being offered at $30 per sq. ft. it would not be unreasonable for Government to dispose of the unreclaimed seabed at $8 per sq. ft.;
(c) that steps should be taken to make this area available in three stages as indicated in
the Report of the Terminal Sub-Committee;
(d) that sale by auction would not be appropriate in the present case; should Government wish to leave the entire development in the hands of private enterprise a tender system should be used or, alternatively, should Government join with a consortium in the development of this terminal as a joint venture, then the appropriate method would be by negotiation;
(e) that whatever method was adopted, the conditions of sale should specifically restrict
the use of the area to a container terminal and depot;
(f) that steps should be taken to make the first stage of reclamation comprising some 58 acres of seabed available not later than May 1967 provided no better alternative proposal was forthcoming by that time;
(g) that nothing in these recommendations should prejudice any alternative plans which
may be submitted by private enterprise.
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