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Master's Department. The Official Administrator has not, I believe, any staff that he could employ in boarding ships on arrival and taking possession of deceased passengers and seamen's effects.
The Fung War Committee should, I think, have nothing whatever to do with the matter, but their assistance might be informally obtained in looking up the friends and relatives of deceased Chinese passengers or seamen.
The steps that appear necessary to place the matter on a proper footing would then be the following.
1. Under the provisions of Section 37 of the Act 37 Victoria Cap. 88, the Board of Trade might require that every Master of a vessel arriving in Hongkong should report to the Harbour Master the death of any passengers or seamen on the voyage.
2. Ordinance 8 of 1860 might be amended so as to provide that those sections which regulate the administration of estates of persons deceased generally, shall not apply in relation to the estates of passengers and seamen dying...