CO129-586-6 Administration of the port of Hong Kong 27-1-1940 - 24-7-1940 — Page 112

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3. In a Report prepared by Br. Juncen, the Hong Kong

Fort ängineer, in 1924, on the commercial development of the

Port of Hong Kong, some reference was made to the question of

future administration. Kr. Dunoen's solution was the

combination of private enterprise with Government control and

supervision. He stressed that the first need was for a

properly constituted Advisory Fort Authority.

Believing that

of the port

but control/itself and of

The

private companies could not be expected to meet the cost of the

developmental worka and reforms which were necessary to secure

true efficiency and economy in the handling of cargoes, he

nevertheless thought that private enterprise should be

oncouraged rather than abandoned:

all port facilities should be centred in the hands of

Government, who should put into operation such works and

extensions as the Advisory Authority might recommend.

basis of that policy was in ir. uncan's own words "thet,

while there would be the brond impartial outlook of Government

which would provide the costly works and lease them on

reasonable terms for the exploitation of the fort, the

administration of business would be carried out by commercial

people who should be interested in despatch, efficiency, and

soonomy on the method of Frofit and Lo88.*

As against this,

4. On the other hand, commander Hole, the mrbour

Master, has more recently urged that the administration of the

port should be placed under the control of a Fort Commission

on the lines of that obtaining at Colombo.

however, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce has

declared that the development of the harbour should be left as

at present in the hands of private enterprise, on the grounds

that this is most likely to secure that herbour facilities will

be kept as cheap as possible and that the wharf companies who

have