E 5
The 380 Foreign vessels carried 2,660 Officers of whom 141 were British as follows :→
In Chinese vessels,
Dutch 11 German 21 French 3 Japanese 19 United States 69 1908 1907 3 3 54 58 13 18 141 152Thus 5.3% of the Officers serving in Foreign vessels visiting the Port were of British nationality. An increase of 0.70% with a decrease in number of Ships and Officers.
9. The Nationality of the Crews in British and Foreign Vessels was as follows:-
VESSELS BRITISH CREWS U. S. A. and EUROPEANS ASIATICS 1907 1908 1907 1908 1907 1908 British 362 365 22,976 23,755 438 380 Foreign 1,699 1,536 417 638 115,308 118,278 27,446 29,721 Total 800 745 115,474 109,818 230,782 228,096Hence in British vessels :
24,675 25,201 30,359 27,863 230,782 228,096
And in Foreign vessels :
1907 1908 1907 1908 16.5 16.67% of the crews were British. 1.2 0.5 0.29% of the crews were Other Europeans. 20.2 1.2% of the crews were British. 19.7 % of the crews were Other Europeans. 83.0 83.03% of the crews were Asiatic. 78.6 79.1% of the crews were Asiatics.2.—Trade.
10. Hongkong being a free port there are no reliable statistics of other Imports and Exports except as regards certain items of cargo, dealt with in the Colony, of which, either from their nature and the circumstances under which they are imported, or from the fact that they are required by law to be specially reported, substantially accurate returns can be given. These items are Coal, Kerosene oil (which includes all products of petroleum), Opium, Morphine, Compounds of Opium, and Sugar. The figures for the three latter will be found in Appendix B.
1,018,753 tons of Coal were imported during the year. This shows a practically negligible increase of 13,886 tons (1.3%) over the Imports during 1907.
Of Bulk Oil 61,818 tons arrived, an increase of 17,938 tons, or 40.8%. This appears to have no special significance, but to be entirely due to the cheap freights ruling, and to the new installation, by the Standard Oil Co., of oil tanks at Lychee-kok, which required filling. 40,018 tons of Case Oil arrived, being an increase of 3,289, or 8.9%, over the 1907 figures. Here, again, the cheap freights were taken advantage of to fill up stocks.
Liquid Fuel, increased from 3,272 tons in 1907 to 13,832 tons in 1908, and was probably affected by the same causes as were Bulk and Case Oil, in addition to which, there has been an increased demand for this product, owing to more steamers using liquid fuel having visited the Colony during the year.