CO129-562-20 Whompoa Port- development 19-2-1937 - 4-4-1938 — Page 43

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of a large ocean freighter or mixed passenger and cargo steamer, where only a portion of the cargo was consigned to Canton, demurrage and tonnage and pilotage dues would make a visit to Whampoa disproportionately expensive. Moreover, it would in any case be necessary for such a vessel to call at Hong Kong to discharge

cargo consigned to Hong Kong, Swatow, and other small

ports in South China; and it would be more convenient also to discharge cargo for Canton at the same time.

The same argument applies to loading cargo. Again, if freight were transhipped at Whampoa, further handling

and transport would still be necessary: Canton is ten

miles away, and the costs of transhipping at Whampoa into lighters or junks, and transport to Canton, would

be little less than the cost of transhipping at Hong Kong,

and transport thence.

On the other hand, like so many other enterprises

undertaken in China, the success or failure of the

project will not depend wholly on technical and

commercial factors, and the scheme cannot be judged

entirely from this point of view. The Kwangtung

authorities are evidently in earnest about the

construction of a port at Whampoa, and it is possible

that, if after completion it is found to be little used,

steps will be taken to force shippers to use it even

although the result is to increase freight charges, the

weight of which will fall on consumers in Kwangtung".

5. Whatever may be the prospects of this development of

Whampoa (and I do not find Hong Kong mercantile or shipping

interests seriously perturbed by them) there is of course no

possible ground on which the Colonial Government could lodge

objections or make representations against it. I revert

therefore to the matter of the extension of the Hankow-Canton

railway mentioned in my first paragraph.

is confortant

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