3.
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Port Trust with
First alternative nominated unpaid Chairman.
Mr. Colman then proceeded to his suggestions if a Port Trust on the lines suggested by Sir David Owen were not instituted.
If the expense of engaging a salaried Chairman was a bone of contention, Mr. Colman said he would repeat the advice which he had given the Colonial Office in June, 1945, namely, that a permanent paid Chairman would not be required, that the Chairman should be nominated by the Governor from among the Port Trustees, and should be possibly either the Colonial Secretary or the Financial Secretary. He would be assisted by a capable permanent Port Secretary.
Second alternative Secretary for Transportation.
As an alternative system of control Mr. Colman said he would recommend that a separate department be set up in the Colonial Secretariat under a Secretary for Transportation who would control the Port, the Railway, Civil Aviation and Road Transport. Mr. Colman visualized each of these sections as having a Director as its administrative head and that each section would prepare its own budget and maintain its separate accounts, and that these would be submitted through the Secretary for Transportation to the Financial Secretary for approval. As the Port Section would submit its own budget, it would also control an Engineering Depart- ment and carry out maintenance and new works. In a question of major importance affecting 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.
Such a system, although it might be slow moving in the event of emergency works or emergency payments to staff, would ensure that the Port Director was well informed as to the financial position and that revenue earned by the Port was used for the benefit of the Port.
Duties of prospective Port Director.
Mr. Colman suggested that apart from general routine work the Port Director and his staff would be occupied with long-term policies for improving the facilities for the transhipment and entrepot trade and for dealing with coastal steamers, river craft and junk traffic.
As evidence of the lack of co-operation between Government departments in the past, Mr. Colman mentioned:
8..
0.
The designing of sea walls as retaining walls primarily
when they might have been adapted as quay walls for handling cargo.
The inadequate facilities along the Connaught Road
frontage.
The faulty development and squalor of the Yaumati
Typhoon Shelter.