CO129-523-6 Criticism of Hong Kong Administration 29-1-1930 - 3-3-1930 — Page 37

10.

The Harbour Department has suffered for some time from

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the most severe criticism, not only from individuals but also

from the Shipping Committee of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce,

and it is to free themselves, as far as possible, from such

criticism that they conceived the idea and succeeded in getting

the Government to agree to the formation of a so-called Harbour

Board in Hong Kong. The Board has no executive powers

whatsoever and is constituted in exactly the same way as the

Sanitary Board.

If the Hong Kong Government would only realize that

the harbour and all matters pertaining thereto could safely be

left to the shipping and business people to control, there

might be some real advantage in constituting a Harbour Board,

but so long as the wharves in Hong Kong are owned by private

enterprise - and they are likely to be for many years to come -

and so long as the Hong Kong Government do not intend to spend

any money in their harbour development schemes, than a Board

made up of a Government majority such as that now in being is a

sheer waste of time to people like ourselves to serve on.