CO129-592-10 Future Policy in Hong Kong- Port Administration 10-4-1946 - 15-4-1947 — Page 113

(C.A.A. 1).

No.

CONFIDENTIAL.

110

CONFIDENTIAL.

CIVIL AFFAIRS ADMINISTRATION,

Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Building,

Hong Kong.

10th April, 1946.

My dear Mayle,

Perhaps you will remember the brief talk we had recently in London about the position of the Port Trust. I expressed to you then my opinion that the whole Fort Trust idea was being rushed and my anxiety that we might find ourselves committed to something which in the end we did not really want.

2.

I have encountered few things as elusive as any record of the Executive Council discussions which preceded the recommendations from Hong Kong regarding the Owen Report. I have been able to find no one who was on the Executive Council at that time who even remembers the discussion. What you feel here is that no one really cares whether there is a Port Trust or not; there is certainly no public clamour for it and the only real feeling I have been able to detect in regard to the whole issue is the pronounced fear on everyone's part (but principally among the commercial interests) that the Port Trust will result in an expensive bureau- cracy which will put up port charges.

3.

I do not want it to be thought I am trying to sabotage Coleman or any proposals he may make. I am sure he is a very able man, and in fact he obviously is.

The only point I want to make is that further discussion here in Hong Kong and further consultation of all the interests involved seems imperative before we are committed to anything. To start the ball rolling and to try to give you some idea of the atmosphere here I called a meeting the other evening of representatives of the shipping interests and other users of the port. I enclose a brief record of the discussion for your information, and from it you may get some idea of the fog which envelops the local mind in regard to the position of the Owen Report and its implications. You will see also that there is one section of local opinion, represented by the Bishop (I deliberately included him in the meeting with the object of getting the opposition on record), which is definitely opposed to the whole Owen conception. The enclosed minutes are fairly rough and ready, and are not of course authoritative; but they may serve.

4.

I should very much like to see the case stated in writing for the creation of the proposed Port Trust: we need I think a stronger and more con- vincing document than the Owen Report itself.

N. L. Mayle, Esq.,

Colonial Office,

Downing Street,

LONDON, S.W.1.

Yours sincerely,

mit

м.

P.T.0.