313) Wt.
268
There are two aspects to the question. The first is the transmission of observations from ships to the national meteorological service as in the present case. The second is the transmission of meteorological information from ship to ship, necessitated by the increasing interest in, and knowledge of, meteorological matters amongst seamen. Success, from both these aspects, depende very largely on the form of message used in the exchange and after consider- able international correspondence a code has been drawn op and very generally adopted.
A copy of the forms supplied by the Meteorological Office to the ships which cond wireless messages to London is attached. From these the form of message and code used can be seen. The message consists of 8 groups of figures. The first 4 groups are those recommended by the International Meteorological Committee, and they have been adopted by practically every country which has organised a ship's service. Amongst these are England, Norway, Sweden, Holland, France, South Africa and, I believe, Japan. The International Meteorological Committee decided that any information supplied in addition to these 4 groups should be left to the discretion of the individual countries. In England we have adopted 4 more groups, the first 2 of which give a very powerful check on the accuracy of the inter- national message. By this check any errors introduced in the first 4 groups during transmission can not only be detected but corrected. The two final groups give information additional to that provided in the inter- national groups.
1
I think it is highly desirable that Hong Kong should come, so far as possible, into line with this international procedure.
The request from Hong Kong for observations from ships will be referred to in an early number of the