CO129-592-9 Future Policy in Hong Kong- Port Administration 13-1-1945 - 4-3-1946 — Page 134

Telegrams: (Shipping) "SHIPMINDER, Telex, London.”

(Inland Transport) "TRANSMINRY, TELEX, LONDON.”

Telephone: ABBEY 7711

EXTN.

Our Reference „PT.718/3/1

Your Reference...54145/1/45

Dear Gent,

38

MINISTRY OF WAR TRANSPORT,

BERKELEY SQUARE HOUSE,

LONDON, W.1.

16th July, 1945.

Thanks for your letter of 11th July.

If,

2

As far as the Secretary of the Hong Kong Harbour Trust is concerned we feel the type of man you will need depends very much on what will be the functions of the Trust. If the Owen report has already been accepted by the Colonial Office in its present form then I think that the best type of man as Secretary of the Trust would be a Chartered Accountant with good secretarial experience, and such a man you might well be able to get from the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. on the other hand, the Harbour authority is to have wider powers and will have to deal with such questions as fore-shore rights, then a man of higher qualifications is perhaps desirable and I suggest that the right type would be a member of the Hong Kong Civil Service. You would clearly get a better type of man if he felt that he had a wider future before him than would be found in the narrow limits of the Hong Kong Harbour authority.

As far as the London Advisory Committee is concerned I have the following comments to make:-

/1.

G.E.J. Gent, Esq., C.M.G., D.S.O., 0.B.E., M.C.,

Colonial Office,

Downing Street,

S.W.1.