PORT SERVICES AS REGARDS GOODS zy
number) undertake cargo handling at the quays, all such
operations being performed by stevedoring contractors
known as Master Stevedores (loading), Master Lumpers
(discharging), and Master Porters (porterage). These
contractors are licensed, and, in the case of Master Porters,
their charges fixed,! but they are not employed by the
Board.

3. At the port of London, while the Port of London
Authority are prepared to undertake the discharge of
ships by their own men at most of the docks, yet there is no
general compulsion, and the practice is only partial. As
regards exports, the Authority’s staff handle them through
the sheds and over the quays to the ship’s side, where they
are taken in hand by outside stevedores.

Reviewing the respective merits of the different systems,
it is difficult to make an effective comparison without an
exhaustive statement of the local conditions. The system
under which a port authority does the work under statutory
powers is one which involves the principle of monopoly
in its strictest form, and may give rise to complaint amongst
traders on this score. The monopolistic principle is less
stringent in the case of licensed stevedores, since there is a
certain amount of competition between them, but it has
been represented that this competition is nullified by the

1. There has been some correspondence lately (May—October,
1925), in the press, between the Federation of British Industries
and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board on the subject of the
charges made by master porters at Liverpool, who, as stated,
work under the supervision of the Board. The scale of appointed
charges for master porters at the Port of Liverpool is based on the
amounts actually paid by the master porters to their labour staff
at current rates and the cost of any materials required, together
with a percentage to cover establishment charges. It was con-
tended by the Federation that these charges were excessive for the
services performed and that they involved the objectionable
principles : firstly, of an automatic increase in the profits on an
increase of the cost, leading possibly to an undue inflation of the
cost, or, at any rate, to absence of inducement to keep it down ;
and secondly, to lack of competition. The reply of the General
Manager to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board was to the effect
that the existence of a large number of master porters in Liverpool
must lead to competition in efficiency, and, in some degree, in
regard to rates charged.

37