The Admiralty, in a statement recently issued denied the statement that the meeting of the Inter-Port Representatives at Devonport to consider "requests" to be placed before the next Naval Welfare Committee was dissolved by Admiralty order.
So far from this being the case, says the statement, the Admiralty in a letter dated August 3, communicating to the Commander-in-Chief for the information of the Conference decisions on the previous year's "requests," stated: Their Lordships are of opinion that, it is desirable that the Welfare Conference should now proceed with the consideration of requests to be placed before the next Committee, in accordance with the approved procedure, and that it is their unmistakable duty to the rest of the Service to do so.
"Should the members of the Conference come to a different conclusion, and renew their request to be allowed to dissolve, it should be clearly pointed out to them that the Admiralty regard the dissolution of the Conference as terminate ing for the time being the programme laid down for the working of the Welfare scheme this year; the Welfare system, however, having been set up by the Admiralty, cannot be permanently dissolved except by the Admiralty, and it will therefore remain in suspense at their Lordships' discretion."
The conclusion not to proceed with the Conference was come to by the Inter-Port representatives, although not in accordance with the advice given in this letter, and was communicated to the Admiralty by the Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, by telegram on Saturday, August 7.
The Admiralty believe that the Service as a whole will feel satisfaction at the benefits secured this year, and that the decision of the Conference not to go on because other requests have not been granted will be considered not. to-accord with the spirit in which the Welfare system was started, Saiuixc on a tentative trip which will eventually result in the inauguration of a regular steamship line between Macao and Kobe, the Namvan, a small Portuguese yacht of 270 tons, reached Kobe on September 2. Laden with a full shipment of rice, the Namvan sailed from Macao on August 23 and came by way of Hongkong and Formosa. Backed by the Portuguese colonies at Oriental ports, arrangements are now being made to open a regular line between the two ports. The Namvan was previously owned by an-Italian, when her name was the Tata Morgana. She is equipped with an auxiliary en-gino which develops a speed of 13 knots. She is piloted by Captain Max de Conceicao and is manned with a Chinese and Portuguese crew of 42 men.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.