- 2 -
43
Encl. No.2.
3. From the three cuttings from the South China
Morning Post of 8th January, 22nd January and 2nd February,
1937, which form my second enclosure you will see that it is
now intended to provide berthage for five or six steamers of
over 8,000 tons, together with the dredging necessary for
their entry.
4. This scheme is nothing new but is essentially the
- same as that reported to our Embassy at Nanking and to the
Department of Overseas Trade by the acting Trade Commissioner
and Commercial Secretary, Hong Kong, in his confidential
despatch No. 11 of 18th March, 1936. As regards its chances
of success I feel that I cannot do better than quote
Mr. R.H. Scott's two concluding paragraphs in that despatch:-
From the commercial point of view the scheme is
11
unsound. The technical difficulties in the way of
dredging the necessary approaches and access channels
may perhaps have been over-estimated; but even
assuming that the port can be completed with the
funds available, and the maintenance work can be and
is efficiently carried out at reasonable cost, it
still remains to convince shipowners of the attractions
of Whampoa. In the case of Shanghai there is no
alternative port of which shipping can make use; but in
the case of Canton Hong Kong provides cheap and up-to-
date facilities for all classes of ships. Small
coasting vessels of about 2,000 gross tons register, which ply from Canton to Shanghai, Tientsin, Haiphong, Singapore, Bangkok, and other ports, can already proceed not only to Whampoa but to Canton itself; and it is
difficult to see what inducement there is to larger
vessels to come to Whampoa. To discharge cargo there,
instead of at Hong Kong, would entail a delay of at
least one day, and probably of two days; and in the case