22
REVIEW
offer, conditions in which commerce could prosper. It was the era of Victorian economic laissez-faire in which every man expected to fend for himself within the framework of the rule of law. Hong Kong was an open port in which all were free to come and go. These conditions suited the merchant classes, foreign and Chinese alike, who asked for no more than to be left alone. But it was slowly being accepted in many quarters that Government would have to exercise more central control if Hong Kong was success- fully to meet the challenge of the post-war years.
Following this new trend of thought the shipping and ship- building sub-committee of the Economic Resources Committee proposed in 1920 that some form of port authority be established in Hong Kong and that extensive dredging be undertaken off Kowloon Point. The sub-committee expressed the opinion that the harbour problem was of the utmost importance to the Colony and should be dealt with not piecemeal but as a whole. Government arranged for a firm of consulting engineers to inspect and report on the development of the harbour. The firm's representative, Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, arrived in the Colony in 1920 and submitted his report two years later. In the event, the Fitzmaurice Report was never implemented, the port retaining the characteristics of a buoy and lighter harbour with cargo handling facilities remaining in the hands of private enterprise.
As a corollary to the Fitzmaurice Report, Mr John Duncan, the Colony's port engineer, analysed the trade statistics of the port for 1923 and the following figures, showing the relative importance of the types of vessels calling at the port, are of interest:
Imports handled by coastal steamers
Imports handled by ocean-going steamers Exports handled by coastal steamers
Exports handled by ocean-going steamers
:
65 per cent of total value;
:
35 per cent of total value;
84 per cent of total value;
16 per cent of total value.
Commodities listed included rice, coal and raw sugar im- ported from French Indo-China, Siam, Japan, Korea, Formosa and the Netherland East Indies; in turn, large quantities of rice and coal were re-exported to South China.
In 1924 16 buoys were overhauled and converted to special typhoon moorings, thereby enabling ships to remain at their berths