Sessional_Paper_1923 — Page 76

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28. On the 28th March, 1923, the following letter was addressed to the owners' solicitors :--

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With reference to my letter of the 19th of September, 1922, I am directed to state that a reply has now been received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies who requests that you should be informed that he regrets that he has not seen his way to recommend to His Majesty the King that the Indemnity Ordinance (No. 18 of 1922), in so far as it concerns the shipping control of Hongkong, should not receive the Royal Assent.

I am also to state that His Grace the Duke of Devonshire has requested His Excellency the Governor to consider and report on any representations which you may wish to make with a view to showing that local shipowners have received less favourable treatment than under the Imperial Scheme. His Grace further desires that you should be warned that any concession which. the Hongkong Government might wish to suggest would require his sanction after consultation with other departments of His Majesty's Government interested in the matter."

No reply has been received to that letter, and there the matter now stands.

29. Various statements have been made, in petitions presented to the Legislative Council and elsewhere, regarding alleged losses sustained by owners owing to the Hong- kong Government's Control. The following correspondence bears upon the point :

Messrs. Deacon, Looker, Deacon, & Harston to Colonial Secretary, 11th April, 1918.

"We enclose herewith working accounts of the steamships Telemachus, Pheumpenh, Haimun, Brisbane, Wollowra, Castlefield, and Patriot. From a perusal of such working accounts it will be seen that, when the remunera- tion proposed to be paid by the Government is placed against the working expenses, the result is a very substantial loss in each case".

Colonial Secretary to Messrs. Deacon, Looker, Deacon, & Harston, 15th April, 1918. "I may state, however, that this Government is unable to accept the figure

which you have put before it. In the case of the S.S. Telemachus to instance the owner's commission is reckoned upon the sum of $45,907; whereas it would in fact, under the calculation given, be payable on a sum of $58,800. Depreciation is allowed for upon a ralne of $600,000, or roughly £90,000; whereas, apart altogether from the question whether or no depreciation is a proper charge, it is customary to take the value, for purposes of depreciation, as the purchase price plus renewals less the amount already written off. Without going further into detail, it may be stated generally that the accounts, as presented by you, are not drawn up in accordance with the customary practice of shipping companies.

This Government will, however, closely watch the working of the requisition scheme, and I am to assure you that the interests of the owners will receive its sympathetic consideration.

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With regard to the value of $600,000 placed upon the S.S. Telemachus, at the time when she was about to come under control, it may be mentioned that in 1916, when large profits were being made and there was no control, the value of the ship was given for probate purposes in the sum of $185,000. The sterling equivalents on the pertinent dates were approximately £92,500 and £19,000.

30. On the 7th June, 1923, at a meeting of the shareholders of Messrs. Moller& Co. (Shanghai), Ltd., held at Shanghai, Mr. E. Moller referred to the Hongkong Govern- ment's "unjustifiable scheme, which in its pitilessness and relentlessness is quite unparalleled a scheme which has had the effect of driving into liquidation a modest Shanghai Shipping Company which has had its Red Anchor flag flying over these Chinese waters for over half a century." Mr. Moller did not make it clear to what company he referred; it was not Messrs. Moller & Co. (Shanghai), Ltd., as that company was incor- porated in 1918. Lloyd's Register of Shipping for the year immediately before the outbreak of war does not include Messrs. Moller in the list of shipowners, and it appears from subsequent editions of the Register that the ships which were named by Mr. Moller to his shareholders were acquired at various dates after war began.