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On Sunday, February 5th, 1939, application was made
at the Clearance Office, Harbour Department, for clearance for
the following ships:-
S.S. "Hsin Lee"
S.S. "Eng Lee"
3.S. "Mao Lee"
S.S. "An Lee".
The Clearance Clerk in charge, observing that the
papers of these ships were not in order, immediately reported
the matter to the Deputy Harbour Master, who was in the office.
The Deputy Harbour Master gave instructions that, as the papers
were not in ortier (Load Line Certificates having become invalid
and wireless licences not being forthcoming) clearance was to
be refused. On Monday, February 6th, the manager of the Dairen
Kisen Kaisha came to the Harbour Office and interviewed the
Deputy Harbour Master on the subject of the clearances being
refused to these ships. He confirmed a letter dated February
1st stating that his company had been appointed agents for these
ships and requested to be informed why clearance had been
refused. The Deputy Harbour Master brought the manager of the Dairen Kisen Kaisha in to see the Harbour Master, who explained
that, as the ships had not been at sea since before the typhoon
in 1937 and as two had suffered damage in that typhoon am two
had ceased to be "classified ships", they could not be
considered as seaworthy craft and that the question of clearance
could not be considered until Certificates of Seaworthiness for
these ships had been produced. It was further pointed out that
Wireless Certificates for two of these ships would be required in order to make the ships' papers complete. Knowing that there
had been former correspondence on the subject of these vessels,
the Harbour Master immediately referred the whole matter to
Government and asked for instructions. On Friday, February 10th
at about 11 a.m., the representative of the Dairen Kisen Kaisha
arrived
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