246.—(1) A mercantile marine office, with the requisite buildings, property, superintendents, deputies, clerks, and servants shall be maintained at every port of the United Kingdom where there is a local marine board, and may be established and maintained at such other ports as the Board of Trade determine.

(2) In every port where there is a local marine board the board shall procure the said buildings and property, F119[…] and regulate the business at, and have the control of, the mercantile marine office, subject as follows:—

(a) The sanction of the Board of Trade shall be necessary, so far as regards F119[…] all F119[…] expenses.

(b) The Board of Trade shall have the immediate control of every such office, as far as regards the receipt and payment of money thereat, and every person appointed to be an officer in any such office shall, before entering upon his duties, give such security (if any) for the due performance thereof as the Board of Trade require.

(c)) F119[…]

(d) The Board of Trade may appoint any superintendent of or other person connected with any sailors home in the port of London to be a superintendent with any necessary deputies clerks and servants, and may appoint an office in any such home to be a mercantile marine office, F119[…].

(3) At any port at which the business of a mercantile marine office is conducted otherwise than under a local marine board, the Board of Trade may—

(a) at any time establish a mercantile marine office and for that purpose procure the requisite buildings and property, F119[…] or

(b) direct with the consent of the Commissioners of Customs, that the whole or any part of the business of a mercantile marine office shall be conducted at the custom house, and thereupon the custom house shall be a mercantile marine office for the purposes of that business, and any officer of customs there appointed in that behalf by the Board of Trade shall be a superintendent or deputy within the meaning of this Act.