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Enclosure No.2.
CHINA COAST OFFICERS' GUILD. MARINE ENGINEERS GUILD OF CHINA.
HONG KONG.
The Hon. Colonial Secretary,
HONGKONG.
Sir,
17th March, 1938.
29
DEPUTY SHIPPING MASTER.
I have the honour to present for consideration by His
Excellency the Governor and on behalf of the Management Committees
of these Guilds, the following submissions with regard to the
impending appointment of a Deputy Shipping Master at the local
Mercantile Marine Offices.
Initially, I am to state that the writer hereof was
identified in his present capacity with these Guilds in the Colony
during 1921 when the present Deputy Shipping Master was appointed
and by reason of personal contact with Government and also other
interested parties in that year, is fully conversant with the
circumstances of that appointment and the subsequent events which
transpired with regard thereto.
The position prior to that appointment, as the writer
recalls it, is that the present Deputy Shipping Master had no
experience whatsoever in the Merchant Service and was appointed,
in fact, direct from the Sanitary Department to the position he
now holds.
The appointment was productive of intense criticism
in the shipping circles of the Colony, the natural contention being
that, having regard to the vast amount of shipping matters handled
by the Deputy Shipping Master and many of which called for a
practical knowledge of the Merchant Service, it was imperative that
an official holding that position should at least possess the
experience and hold the qualifications necessary to entitle him to the post.
Arising out of the appointment the matter was represented
to London and questions subsequently raised in the House of Commons.