Evening star., 1923-08-19
London Is Planning to Lure Americans
To Enter City by New Direct Water Route

big meal. For the spirituous fumes
in these dimly lighted. fungi studded
vaults are overpowering and on sew
eral occasions. when it has fallen to
my lot in years gone by to pilot for
eign royalties on expeditions through
these maZes of cellars. some of the
party have, without touching single
drop. been completely prostrated and
overtaken by a stupor of intoXication.
Until about fifteen years ago the
control of all of these various docks
and wharves, as well as of the river
itself, was divided amongst scores of
different bodies and corporations.
There was the Tames Conseryancy,
there was the city of London. there
was Trinity House. the London county
council, the ancient Watermen's Guild
the government board of trade, and
the numerous companies owning the
various docks and bonded warehouses.
all of them working independently of
one another. and in many cases in
rivalry, with the result that the river
was not sufficiently dredged and the
traffic was abominably managed, so
much so that shipping was driven
away and the import and re-export
trade commenced to show a very seri-
Gus and alarming decline.
Authorized I'm 1905.
Early in the present century
royal commission composed of mem
bers of both houses of parliament
was appointed by King Edward VII
to investigate the matter, and. after
a most exhaustive inquiry and the
removal of obstacles which appeared
insuperable. an act of parliament
was finally passed in 1908 concentrat-
ing all authority and all powers in
the hands of a corporate body, en-
titled THE Port of London Author
ity," stock in the corporation being
given to the various dock companies,
etc, for the surrender of their in
terestS and rights.
The directorate of the corporation
as now constituted comprises repre-
sentatives of the admiralty, as well
as of the ministry of transport, of the
Corporation of London and of Trinity
House. besides seventeen members
elected by the wharf1ngers and own
ers of river craft. The government
board of trade and the county council
are compelled by the act to each con-
suit with the representatives of labor
as to the appointment of two of their
four delegates, so that labor may be
said to have two important repre-
sentatives on the board Of directors.
The so-called port authority fixes the
port rates and dock charges, polices
the river, has powers to borrow
money for the purposes of mainte-
nance and construction, while it's con-
troll of the stream extends from Ted
dington to the mouth of the Thames.
that Is to say, stretch of nearly
eighty miles.
Faced Big Obstacles.
The chairman Of the royal commis-
sion which thus organized the ad-
ministration of the port of London
in face of difficulties that appeared
even more insuperable than those
confronting the chairman of the port
authority of New York, the man who
piloted the bill through parliament. is
now the presiding officer of the port
authority of London, and, although
that post carries with it salary of
100000 a year, the occupant of the
office, Lord Davenport, like his Amer
lean counterpart in New York, the
Hon. Eugene H. Outerbridge, has al
ways declinyd to touch a penny piece
thereof on the ground that to be per-
mitted to serve the nation in so i'm
portant a fashion is. in itself, suf-
f1cient reward.
Lord Davenport is very remark
able man, wholly. self made, having
started in life as an errand boy, son
of a small farmer Of Uxbridge, in
Middlesex. BY 1873, when he was
seventeen years of age. he had at
tained the dignity of clerk in a tea