CO129-436 - Acting Governor Claud Sever & Governor Sir May & Public Offices - 1916 [11-12] — Page 573

i

Copy.

No. 4103

"Proserpine" at Port Said,

15th December, 1915.

569

Sir,

With reference to your minute No.530 of 2nd November, transmitting the remarks of the Master Attendant at Singapore and the Governor of Hong Kong on my proposals concerning the better safeguarding of bills of lading of homeward bound merchant vessels, I have the honour to inform

you that the attitude taken up in these letters does not

appear to me to be at all satisfactory. The local authori-

ties seem to attach more importance to commercial consider- ations and the routine of peace time than to war requirements.

2. It is clearly laid down in paragraph 4 of the Board of Trade Announcement of 19th August 1915, "Notice

respecting Bills of Lading", that "in all cases it is

"essential that the Bill of Lading, or a certified copy of

it, should be on board the vessel".

3. Once a ship is loaded and on her voyage, the delays and expense entailed in examining or detaining suspicious

goods makes effective examination very difficult, but at

ports of loading and transhipment suspicious goods can be

examined for origin or detained for enquiry without delaying

the vessel.

4. It would therefore be of great assistance to the

Naval Examining Officers here if they could accept the

green passes issued at Hong Kong and Singapore as a guarantee

that the ships papers had been carefully examined at these

ports and suspicious consignments investigated, but it does

Gormander-in-Chief,

H. M. Ships & Vessels,

China.

A

A.

cil