The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1914. THE PORT OF LONDON.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 52, 17 October 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1914. THE PORT OF LONDON.

By the last English mail there comes' to hand a very handsome booklet issued by the Port of London Authority. In story and illustration it deals interestingly with The Port of the Empire, Mr Douglas Owen having contributed a story of the origin of London’s site which he concludes, in the absence of direct evidence or authority, must needs remain conjectural, but all things considered, he tells us, the rive” crossing seems to supply a reasonable explanation of the City’s birth. The ■rise of London is depicted, and it is pointed out that apparently the first distinct and trustworthy evidence as to the antiquity of London’s shipping trade is that supplied by the Venerable Bede, who described London in A.D. 604 as “a mart of many nations resorting to it by sea and land.” That London is a many-sided Port is shown by the section dealing with the uses of the Port, and it is clearly indicated that they are mixed and many, and that London is the only metropolis in the world situate at a great seaport, and is a city most wonderfully placed for trade. As early as the year 703 there did, in fact, exist a genuine enclosed dock at London known ns the Howland Dock, at Rotherhithe, but the first ship and cargo dock was the famous West India Dock, which was opened on the part of a private company and proved a hugely successful monopoly, but in duo time this was got over and reforms brought about which meant the gradual abolition of duties. For many years various ' dock companies did exceedingly well,| but the relations between them and the traders of the Port, wharfingers, lightermen and various others, became considerably strained. Charges i were levied against the companies of j neglect and ill-equipment, and finally: there was a great clamor for the aboli-j tion of these dock companies and their j supersession by an authority specially constituted for the management of the river and the Port. In 4900 a Royal Commission of Inquiry was set up, but it was not until 1908 that the then .President of the British Board of Trade (Mr Lloyd George) entered into 1 , negotiations with the dock companies for the purchase of their property lor transfer to a public authority. Finally the Government decided to take over property of the collective value of twenty-three millions sterling and a comprehensive Bill was put through the House of Commons providing for ■ the transfer of the docks and for the, setting np of a new power to ho known j as the Port of London Authority, to control them, and also to take over the powers of the Thames Conservancy below Teddington, and of the Watermen’s Company. London’s dock s'ys-

tem to-day covers an enormous area, the Koval Victoria and Albert Docks alone being the largest sheet of dock water in the world, and as evidence of the accommodation provided in this group alone the length of the, north side of the quay by itself is equal to that of all the river quays of famous Antwerp. When it is remembered

that it has been decided to expend no less than fourteen millions sterling for

the Port’s improvements and that in a few years the whole of this sum will have been expended on the work, there can bo no question about the future of this wonderful Port of the Empire.