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(4) The main point is that, if our steamers with their already high running costs are not exempt from the operation of this Act, their power of compoting with the cheaply run Asiatic and other European tonnage will be greatly prejudiced, British tonnage will tend to decrease on
the China coast and British merchants importing into or export- ing from China will suffer.
the
The largest amount of transhipment cargo from main line ocean steamers to its destination and from port of origin to the ocean steamers is carried by our Company and the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, so that, if our power of competing with the other tonnage on the coest 18 prejudiced by this extra burden and our services are corse- quently curtailed, the British merchant will be placed at the mercy of (principally) Japanese shipowners and uny merchant in the Far East from his experience during the war will tell you that that means merciless discrimination and squeezing.
(5) Nearly all these vessels are employed on coastwise trips of two or three days duration and are practi ally always within sight of land. Those marked T seldom or never carry passengers, foreign or native.
"Taming" is however at present employed between Hong Kong and the Philippines, while "Kalgan" etc. will be employed Hong Kong/Bangkok or Hong Kong/Singapore/Bangkok. These two trades cannot strictly be described as coastwise and the "Kalgan" class will carry consider ble numbers of coclle passengers at certain seasons. In spite of these facts we feel justified in applying for the exemption of these vessels as well, because
(1) The Philippine. trade has never been a fat one and now the Americans propose to enter it
(2) The Bangkok trade is open during the rice season
to the incursion of cheap local tramp tonnage, it is subject
ø "Kwelyang", "Kiangsu", Kwangt ung", "Kwangchow", "Kiungohow",
"Kingyuan"