CO129-608-7 Future policy- Report on Port Administration by Sir David Owen 24-2-1941 - 24-2-1941 — Page 57

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NATURE OF THE POR'S TRADE. Some Ports owe their origin to raw material found in the vicinity for which there is an export demand, or to factories in the neighbourhood whose products must be exported. Other Ports are centres of big populations which have largely to be supplied with food, etc., by sea. Others perform a useful function in connexion with entropot or trans-shipment trade.

22. In the case of Hong Kong its production of raw materials is negligible, while it produces only a small fraction of the food- stuffs it consumes. There are industries established in Hong Kong such as shipbuilding and ship repairing, sugar refining, brewing, knitting and weaving, and the manufacture of rope, ginger, aerated waters, bricks, cement and tiles, etc.

23. The principal commodities imported into Hong Kong are foodstuffs, piece-goods and textiles, oils and fats, metals, Chinese medicines, fuel, live animals, vehicles and machinery and engines; while the chief exports consist of foodstuffs and provisions, treasure, oils and fats, metals, wearing apparel, Chinese medicines, minerals and ores and vehicles.

24. The normal trade cf Hong Kong falls into the following broad categories:

(a) Imports for consumption in Hong Kong and raw materials for

certain industries, and exports of Hong Kong origin.

(b) Chinese external trade passing through Hong Kong, i.e.

Chinese goods re-exported to non-Chinese countries and non-Chinese goods re-exported to China.

(c) Chinese coastal trade, i.e. goods imported from one part

of China and re-exported to another.

(a) Non-Chinese entrepot trade, i.e. goods imported from a

non-Chinese country and re-exported to another non- Chinese country.

The

25. It is estimated that only about one-third of the imports into Hong Kong consists of goods intended for retention in the Colony and that less than one-tenth of the exports are of goods originating there. The bulk of the trade of the Port is trans-shipment or entrepot. very important :unction which the Port performs in this respect is due to the fact that between Shanghai and Indo-China there is no other deep-sea harbour having convenient access to the interior as well as

Goods in transit safe anchorage and efficient equipment and facilities. to and from China and other Asiatic countries must in the main be conveyed in deep-draughted ships and discharged at some point into smaller coasting vessels or into warehouses ashore, or vice versa as the oase may be. Hong Kong serves this purpose, and is able to secure the business because of the position of its excellent Harbour coupled with the cheapness of its facilities.

Existing facilities of the Port.

26. PIERS. The water way of about 17 square miles in area between the island of Hong Kong and the mainland forms a magnificent natural harbour and has a depth varying from 24 to 78 feet, there being a rise at

This small range of tide spring tides normally of only about 8 feet. renders it unnecessary for enclosed docks with locks to be provided, and therefore the accommodation for the berthing of vessels has taken the usual form in such circumstances, viz: fixed piers projecting from the shore into the waterway.