Three organisational factors make IAPH an effective representational body for world ports: its standing as a recognised NGO, its consultative status with crucial international organisations, and the fact that it operates on a truly global basis. In the association’s infancy, each of these features represented a long-term institutional goal, and all three milestones were reached around the time of the organisation’s 10th anniversary – marked by the Fourth Conference of the IAPH, which took place in London, May 10–14, 1965. Held at the Café Royal on Regent Street (today the Hotel Café Royal), the event was chaired by Viscount Simon of the Port of London Authority with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as its patron, and saw double the attendees of the previous conference. The growth around the London event mirrored the organisation’s rapid membership expansion, particularly with regard to European ports; until this point, “Europe had been a hard nut to crack for IAPH”, remembered secretary general Gaku Matsumoto. Discussions at the conference emphasized cooperation with global organizations like the UN, World Bank, and OECD, to aid developing countries. Indeed, following earlier meetings with the secretariat, J N Bathurst, a representative of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), spoke at the conference and outlined the procedures for establishing a relationship between the association and UN ECOSOC. The next year, IAPH was granted Category B non-governmental advisory status by the UN and went on to acquire consultative status with organizations such as UNCTAD and the IMO. In recent years, London has increased in importance for the association. It is the home not only of the IMO but also of the IAPH Europe team, with a shared office space at the Park Street headquarters of the British Ports Association; it has also become the venue for the annual in-person Technical Committee days. These developments represent the continuation of a proud legacy of international engagement; as Matsumoto later observed, “it is not too much at all to say that IAPH became a world organization only by dint of the London conference.”
