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On Sunday, February 5th, 1939, application was made
at the Clearance Office, Harbour Department, for clearance for
the following ships:-
S.S. "Hsin Lee"
S.3. "Eng Lee"
S.S. "Mao Lee"
S.S. "An Lee".
The Clearance Clerk in charge, observing that the
papers of these ships were not in order, immediately reported the matter to the Deputy Harbour Master, who was in the office. The Deputy Harbour Master gave instructions that, as the papers were not in order (Load Line Certificates having become invalid and wireless licences not being forthcoming) clearance was to
be refused. On Monday, February 6th, the manager of the Dairen
Kisen Kaisha came to the Harbour Office and interviewed the
Deputy Harbour Master on the subject of the clearances being refused to these ships. He confirmed a letter dated February 1st stating that his company had been appointed agents for these ships and requested to be informed why clearance had been refused. The Deputy Harbour Master brought the manager of the Dairen Kisen Kaisha in to see the Harbour Master, who explained
that, as the ships had not been at sea since before the typhoon in 1937 and as two had suffered damage in that typhoon and two had ceased to be "classified ships", they could not be considered as seaworthy craft and that the question of clearance
could not be considered until Certificates of Seaworthiness for
these ships had been produced. It was further pointed out that ireless Certificates for two of these ships would be required in order to make the ships' papers complete. Knowing that there had been former correspondence on the subject of these vessels, the Harbour Master immediately referred the whole matter to Government and asked for instructions. On Friday, February 10th at about 11 a.m., the representative of the Dairen Kisen Kaisha
arrived