General Reporter

Mr W. G. Harris (Director General, Navy Works, Admiralty), introducing the Papers for the Session, said that they were all concerned with ports and maritime engineering. The first Paper, No. 17, "Port developments overseas: the engineer's place today", by Sir Eric Millbourn, was of great interest, since it set out the views of an acknowledged expert on port development and operation about the role and responsibilities of the

civil engineer in the design and construction of commercial ports throughout the world and pointed to some of the lessons that might be learnt from recent experience.

The Author illustrated the interrelation between civil engineering and port development, especially in underdeveloped countries, and Mr Harris did not think anyone present at the Conference would disagree with what the Author had had to say on this, except perhaps when he referred to it as a 20th century phenomenon. He suggested that the history of civil engineering and of ports would show that this close relationship had existed for many centuries and that port development had always been a live issue for maritime nations and their civil engineers. Nevertheless, the Author had rightly emphasized that the scale of port development throughout the world, both as to the number of ports and the facilities required, had been greater since the 1939-45 war than at any other time in this century; also that technical development had been more rapid. The Author had traced the reasons for this and examined some of the problems which changes in the pattern of post-war trade and in industrial development had created. These were problems both for experts in the Author's own field and for the port authorities, who must decide the scale of facilities required initially and likely to be required in the future, and also at what rate the development could be economically afforded—as well as for the civil engineer who must translate those requirements into physical structures and mechanical equipment which would meet the modern need for rapid cargo handling and quick turn-round of ships.