SHIPPING, To the Editor of the "Nortx-Cuina Daty News."
Sir,—The letters of August 14 and 17, from Mr. Moller and Mr. Burkill, make it evident that their disagreement with the Hongkong Government on the shipping control question is based, to a certain extent at least, upon a misunderstanding, and I therefore columns to explain" he situation ask the hospitality of your as the Hongkong Government sees it.
I may in the first place take the opportunity to express the pleasure with which I have read che very kind references to myself in_both letters.
I had missed the significance of previous statements regarding th" use of the ships in aid or defence of the Colony, but Mr. Moller and Mu Burkill have now made it clear that they are under the impression that the Governor commandeered them under the Order-in-Council of 1896, which permitted him to "require any person to supply any animals, vehicles, ships, boats, or other personal property to the Government, if such property be required in aid of or in connexion with the defence of the Colony:" and, being under that impression, Mr. Moller and Mr. Burkill resent the use which was made of certain of the ships, notably the Wollowra, claiming that, although they were ostensibly taken in aid of or in connexion with the defence of the Colony, they were in fact employed solely for purposes of profit making.
But the Governor did not requisition the ships: the ships were not taken in aid of or in connexion with the defence of the Colony,-but were to be used, if not otherwise required, on the owners' ordinary business: and the Order-in-Council never came into the matter at all.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.