Following the first International Port Conference held in Kobe in 1952 conference (as detailed in last month’s IAPH Insider), a second conference was held in Los Angeles, with the intention of establishing a permanent association. Postponed until November 1955 to ensure maximum attendance, the Second International Port & Harbor Conference is remembered as the founding meeting of IAPH. The decision to establish the new association may have been clearly supported, but the question of who would lead it was yet to be resolved. Despite strong encouragement from US representatives, founder Gaku Matsumoto declined to become the first IAPH president, reasoning that Japan should not dominate the association. A selection committee, composed of members from Asia, Europe, and America, appointed Bennett J. Roberts (Canada) as president, John Iwar Dahlin (Sweden) as first vice president, and Ching-wen Chen (China) as second vice president. Fourteen directors were elected, and a board meeting was held, during which it was decided that the central secretariat would be located in Tokyo. Gaku Matsumoto was appointed as the first secretary-general. When reviewing the goals of the organisation for delegates, he affirmed that ‘ports should exist ever for cooperation and not for competition’. The 1955 conference is also remembered for a group photograph taken at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles (displayed below). This iconic image of international port professionals continues to serve as a reminder of the association’s legacy and its trans-pacific founding. Many of the delegates in the image are identified here.
