CO129-573-1 Vacancy for Deputy Shipping Master in Mercantile Marine office of the Harbour Department 13-4-1938 - 18-1-1939 — Page 29

x

P

Enclosure No.2.

CHINA COAST OFFICERS' GUILD. MARINE ENGINEERS GUILD OF CHINA.

HONG KONG.

The Hon. Colonial Secretary,

HONGKONG.

Sir,

17th March, 1938.

29

DEPUTY SHIPPING MASTER.

I have the honour to present for consideration by His

Excellency the Governor and on behalf of the Management Committees

of these Guilds, the following submissions with regard to the

impending appointment of a Deputy Shipping Master at the local

Mercantile Marine Offices.

Initially, I am to state that the writer hereof was

identified in his present capacity with these Guilds in the Colony

during 1921 when the present Deputy Shipping Master was appointed

and by reason of personal contact with Government and also other

interested parties in that year, is fully conversant with the

circumstances of that appointment and the subsequent events which

transpired with regard thereto.

The position prior to that appointment, as the writer

recalls it, is that the present Deputy Shipping Master had no

experience whatsoever in the Merchant Service and was appointed,

in fact, direct from the Sanitary Department to the position he

now holds.

The appointment was productive of intense criticism

in the shipping circles of the Colony, the natural contention being

that, having regard to the vast amount of shipping matters handled

by the Deputy Shipping Master and many of which called for a

practical knowledge of the Merchant Service, it was imperative that

an official holding that position should at least possess the

experience and hold the qualifications necessary to entitle him to the post.

Arising out of the appointment the matter was represented

to London and questions subsequently raised in the House of Commons.