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obviously impossible in the circumstances.
Control of the Port.
even by a special department of the Government of Hong Kong,
would in effect be bureaucratic control, and that form of
control is not highly regarded now-a-days. It is feared that
it would hardly make for cheapness.
(75) In South Africa again, there is a Harbour Advisory
Board at each Port, but this also does not give satisfaction.
Such Boards can only express opinions and make recommendations
without any guarantee that they will be carried out, and it is
hardly within the capacity of human nature for a person to spend
much time and thought on the problem of Port development with
a fruitless result.
(76) I therefore rule out direct Government control in the
form mentioned, even with the assistance of an Advisory Committee.
In this connection I would refer to the Advisory Board and
Committee alluded to in paragraphs 11-15. It is interesting to
note what has been done in Hong Kong in that way, for it clearly
indicates, as it were, a groping in the dark for some solution
of the Port problem. I can only remark that in some respects
the constitution of the first Advisory Board seemed hardly a
happy one. For instance, the appointment of a Government
official in the person of the Harbour Master as the Chairman,
could scarcely be expected to lead to the best results, and
this not from any personal point of view, but from that of his
office.
(77) There remains, therefore, course (c) to be considered,
that is, whether some form of Port Authority or Trust would meet
the case. There is a wide-spread fear among the mercantile
interests in the Colony that such a Body would inevitably
increase the charges on vessels and goods, and this seems to be
founded on the assumption that the creation of such a Body
would mean the acquisition by that Body of all the piers and
godowns and the operating of them by that Body. I must, however, point out that by no means is that necessarily so.