COPY.
.Y I O O
sir,
DISACON, LOOKER, DEACON & HARSTON.
263
Hongkong,
19th December, 1917,
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8. 8. "Tollowra".
This ship will, so the Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Co.,Ltd.,inform our clients, be ready on the 27th instant,
With reference to our letter of the 11th instant,
re the "Manapouri" and the "Castlefield", our clients hope they may again be permitted to emphasize their urgent necess -ity for the use of these two ships, the only vessels which
remain to them,
If these two remaining ships, or if either of them, were taken our clients would be placed in a position of great financial difficulty as it is by the use of the se ships that they hope to earn sufficient moneys to cover the heavy expenditure upon the ships which have been requisit-
If they ioned which the Government has had the benefit of. are precluded from earning these moneys owing to my requisitioning they will be subjected to very great hardship and, they respectfully submit, to injustice.
The Admiral ty rates of hire, being in sterling, leave very little, if any,margin for profit in view of the high exchange and the increased expenditure for wages, storef repairs, provisions and insurance etc. which takes place in dollars and which is the result of prevailing conditions,
Our clients, therefore, desire to urge as strongly
as they can, that it would not be right to requisition either of the remaining ships.
Our clients desire, with equal respect, to put forward their claim to be represented on the Advisory Board
8