CO129-448 - Governor Sir May - 1918 [4-6] — Page 24

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The Ordinance by which these powers were taken was

the Importation & Exportation Ordinance No.32 of 1915 which

with the Rules made under it requires full information

regarding all ports and Exports to be given to the Imports

and Exports Department. All exporta with certain exceptions

which are unimportant from a world-trade point of view (e.g.

Fresh foodstuffs, livestock) require a permit from the Depart.

ment for each shipment, The same is true of Imports save that

General Import Licences are grunted to vessels trading to the

porte of China more immediately adjacent to Hongkong, 1.8.

to the Canton Delta and the nearer coast ports. Separate

permite are not required for Imports from these sources

because of the nece.sity for clearing the ships' holds as

speedily as possible for the reception of the return cargoes.

Complete manifests of all cargo imported and exported have

to be furnished to the Department by all vessels, including

those holding General Import Licences, The powers conferred

by the Ordinance have been held to extend even to cargo in

transit through the Colony without transhipmont but aa a

rule no permite are required for such cargo, though a munifest

of it has to be furnished,

It will be clear that this Ordinance provides the machineryfor compiling comprehensive statistics of the whole trade of the Fort; but there were many practical difficulties

to be overcome before the machinery could be brought into full working order. The scarcity and costliness of European staff,

the lack of suitable office accommodation, the difficulty of

obtaining olerioal stuff of the needful calibre, linguistio

troubles and above all the ever-increasing demands of war-

trade problems on the attention of the Head of the Department

were the chief of these obstacles. An examination of the

records compiled in 1916 at once showed them to be so full of

errors and defects as to be valueless, An effort was made to

improve matters in 1917, but the work fell badly into arrear