32
about 50,000 and if the present sites are retained as
additional coal-depôts they will be able to store 100,000
tons.
8.
It appears from the Directory
that this Firm act as Agents for seventeen different
Japanese Coal Companies. They own their own steamers which
carry the coal. They are in addition Agents.for 3 Insurance,
1 Cotton Spinning, and 1 Brewery Companies. I am not aware
of the relations between this Company and the Japanese
Government, but I have always believed that they are
heavily subsidised.
9.
Apart from the Mitsui gussan
Kaisha there is another Japanese firm (the Mitsui Bishi
Goshi), which stores about 20,000 tons of coal at Kowloon
Marine Lot 47. There are seven Chinese Companies with an
aggregate of 45,000 tons in addition to a Portuguese
Company which stores 10,000 on account of various Chinese
firms. Two German firms store about 3,500 tons (and this
I am informed is the best kind and used for Men-of-war).
These figures show a total of some 117,000 tons of foreign
owned coal on an average in this Port.
10.
The Mitsui Bussan Kaiṣha lay
stress on the increasing importance of Hongkong as a
bunkering