PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TILLC.O. 882
8
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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At my interview with you on July 15th, I mentioned that my firm in Singapore- Messrs. Guthrie and Company, Limited-are the Commercial Agents in Singapore of the Federated Malay States.
I also informed you that arising out of this relationship-I wrote a confidential Memorandum for Mr. W. H. Treacher, the Resident-General of the Federated Malay States, bearing on the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company's application to that Govern- ment for a loan of $10,000,000.
I gathered, from our conversation, that a copy of this Memorandum had not then been sent from Singapore to the Colonial Office.
I cabled to my firm in Singapore to send one home to me; it has now come, and herewith I beg to wait on you with a copy thereof, (D), also relative correspondence (A), (B), and (C). These seem to me to have bearing of importance on the question of a large loan by Government to the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, Limited, at present under consideration.
At the same time I take the opportunity of further enclosing copy of:-
(E). A Memorandum, dated 3rd January, 1903, that I wrote for the Colonial
Secretary S.S., on-
The question of creating for Singapore an Official Port Trust,' such as would take the place there of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Com- pany, Limited.""
And I also enclose copy of-
(F). A Memorandum written by me on 22nd February, 1904 (for the Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements), conveying some criticisms and sug- gestions on the draft of a "Tanjong Pagar Wharf Improvements Bill" that was then proposed by Government, an "advance" copy of which had been sent to me in confidence for my views thereon. Please pardon anything that may appear to you as "officious" in my com- munications on these matters. Perhaps, when you know that since 1859 (when, as a lad, I was landed in Singapore) I have been continuously in the place, and have grown with it, so much so, that I have come to look on it as my home, you will then understand my close interest and keenness in these matters and in the Colony; and will also understand how I come to be, as it were, "fighting," in hope of helping to free a large and important section of the Singapore commercial community from a condition of arbitrary domination by people retired to London, that I know it will be much for the good of the Colony to be rid of.
C. P. Lucas, Esq., C.B.
(Confidential.)
Believe me, &c.,
Enclosure 1 in No. 11.
JOHN ANDERSON.
"
ON THE QUESTION OF AN OFFICIAL "PORT TRUST FOR SINGAPORE. MEMORANDUM, dated January 3rd, 1903,.by JOHN ANDERSON. (E.)
"
COPY OF A MEMORANDUM on the question of creating an Official Port Trust" for Singapore, such as would take the place of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, Limited, written by Mr. John Anderson of Singapore, and handed to the Honourable W. T. Taylor, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements.
Singapore, January 3, 1903.
"Port Trust" for Singapore.
"
1. I believe that some people have urged the creation of an Official " Port Trust for Singapore, one that would, inter alia, absorb the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company,- but I doubt if the advocates of this are closely acquainted with the conditions existing and necessary or if they have thought the question out very thoroughly.
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2. The Tanjong Pagar Dock Company has a fairly wide variety of businesses, and there are few concerns in the ports of the world that handle the united under- takings that it engages in. It is not a concern like the "Port Trust" of Calcutta for instance, which I believe limits itself to finding berthage accommodation for steamers and transit warehouses for cargo. It undertakes storage of goods for the public, it stores and delivers coals, it has a very large lighter service, it has dry docks, foundries, machine shops, shipbuilding yards, sawmills, undertakes salvage, towage, runs launches, undertakes contracts, it ships the cargo of merchants, does stevedoring, contracts to supply labour, and occupies itself very busily and extensively with almost anything and everything pertaining to a shipping port.
3. Of coal, it is the custodian, on storage terms (never as owners) of nearly all that comes to Singapore. It may be counted that the stock of coal in the Company's keeping upon its premises is always, roundly, 200,000 tons. Not only has every ownership of coal to be kept and accounted for separately, but each cargo is divided up into various piles, distributed over the length of the wharf; this so, that a steamer which is to be coaled by Jones, coal merchant, will find Jones's coal within handy reach at almost any berth throughout the whole mile and a half of wharf. The area thus required for widely distributed storagf coal, is comparatively enormous. The Company frequently has as many as about 30 separate stacks of coali Generally speaking, the wharf is fully occupied, and not infrequently steamers have to be kept in the roadstead waiting till a berth at the wharf becomes vacant.. If Jones's coal were kept in one place only, it might be at one end of the wharf, and when a steamer requiring Jones's coal came in, she might have to be berthed a mile away from that coal at the opposite end of that wharf. This would make quick despatch impossible.
4. As to storage and warehousing of curgo and transhipment cargo, the go- down accommodation for this, in three years ended 1902, has been nearly doubled, in other words, in these three years the Company has built nearly as much again by way of additional warehouses as had been provided in 30 years of the Company's
existence.
5. The Company's present berthage at wharves (January, 1903) is not enough for the port's requirements. It should be able to give berthage to any and every vessel at any moment that room is called for. For its present capacity it does, on the whole, well, in other words, it makes the very utmost of its existing length of berthage.
6. This, however, is done, and can only be done, by working the staff at high pressure, by work at night as well as by day. The Company knows no law as to hours of work; its officers and staff work early and late, night or day, all the year round, as they may, on no notice, be called upon to do, and in this way what cannot be done in 12 hours is managed by working 18; berthage room, which does not exist at the wharf to-day, required for a steamer due to-morrow morning, is got by working (on the steamer now occupying the berth) during the night to get her away early next morning. There is no "red tape" at Tanjong Pagar; everything is manipulated from hour to hour to suit and meet the requirements of the next hour; day in, day out, it is a course of driving and pushing and planning to give despatch and make room.
7. If a body of "Port Trust" officials took charge, they would make hard and fast rules and regulations, they would have certain official hours; there could not be the "give and take" and the elasticity that now enables the Company to fight time, and the officials and employees of the Company would soon drift into the groove of fixed times and hours. The work could of course be done in some time, but there would not be the making of time that now exists.
8. It must not be overlooked that it would probably pay the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company's shareholders handsomely to be bought out by a "Port Trust," for the cost of doing so would require to be an enormous capital sum; necessarily so, when the value of its land alone is considered.
9. I believe, however, that more work will always be got out of its officers and employees as a whole, while they are the servants of a commercial concern, than would be got out of the same men as the servants of an official corporation. At present, an employee is dispensed with at once if he is wanting in vigour, initiation, or capabili- ties, or if he is suspected; the matter is not argued, he is a servant on a month's or three months' notice; "You don't suit us, here is so much pay in lieu of so much notice; sorry, but you must go,” and the bad bargain is disposed of.
It would not be thus in the service of an official corporation, and if a "Port Trust
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was created