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The only concrete evidence for the assumption of increased expense is the salary of the Chairman. Well gentlemen, if that really is the bone of contention, why have a paid Chairman at all? I have no doubt that you can carry on with a Port Trust quite satisfactorily without a paid Chairman. I think it was in June, 1945, that I was asked to go from Iraq to London for consultationɛ in connection with the post of Chairman of the Hong Kong Port Trust. After a preliminary meeting I was given the Owen Report and asked to call again. When I returned I told them that in my opinion they did not want a permanent paid Chairman at the outset they wanted a first-class and well-paid Secretary, and that the Chairman should be nominated by the Governor from the members of the constituted Port Trust I suggested he should be the Colonial Secretary or the Financial Secretary.
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I imagined that was my last connection with Hong Kong and expected to return to Iraq. I was not a little surprised about ten days later to be offered the post of Chairman-designate, Hong Kong Port Trust. I only tell you that story to assure you that by recommending a Port Trust without a paid Chairman you will only be supporting my own original recommendation.
As an alternative system of control I would recommend that a separate department should be set up in the Colonial Seoretariat under a Secretary for Transport. He would control the Port, the Railway, Civil Aviation, and Road Transport. Each one of these sections would have a director who would be the administrative head of his own section. Each section would maintain its own accounts and submit its own budget. These accounts and budgets would be submitted to the Secretary for Transport who would pass them to the Financial Secretary for approval and no expenditure would be allowed without the Financial Secretary's approval.
Such a system would ensure that the director was well in touch with his financial position, and it would ensure that revenue earned by the Port was used for the Port. If the Port submits its own budget, it will of course control its own Engineering Department, carry out its own maintenance or new works.
In a question of major importance affeating the general policy or involving large expenditure, it would be probable that the Government, possibly on the advice of the Director, would set up a small Committee of Inquiry to report on that particular point at issue.
It has the disadvantage that it sometimes has a clogging effect in the way of emergency works or payments to staff, but these difficulties can be usually overcome by a direct contact between the Director and the Financial Secretary to enable action to be taken in anticipation of sanction.
I do not suggest that this proposal is an improvement on a Port Trust because it does not eliminate the possibility of outside influence being brought to bear on port affairs, but in my opinion it is infinitely better than the present set-up with another standing Advisory Committee.
Such an organization might work and should work. It will largely depend upon the personality of the Port Director. What you want is a man between 40/45 with some future before him. He will have under him a Chief Engineer and a Senior Marine Officer and he must be paid more than either of those officers. He must be in a position whereby he can take an entirely unprejudiced view and be beholden to none exoept his Government Departmental Secretary.