Mr Forrester
WORLD WIDE (SHIPPING GROUP
1.
REGISTRATION IN HONG KONG
Mr Royle has asked for a note on the question of the
registration of Mr Pao's ships in Hong Kong. We have now been
into this question in detail with the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) and our legal advisers, and our conclusions
are summarised in the following paragraphs of this submission.
2. It seems to us that the main stumbling-block in Mr Pao's
view is what he has described as the rigid nationality
requirement of officers and engineers serving in senior posts
and the certification requirements. There is indeed a
shortage of qualified seafaring officers and so far as the UK
is concerned the DTI are at present engaged on the urgent task
of reviewing current arrangements in relation to certification,
manning and the training of ships' officers in the hope of
laying the foundations for a more stable situation in the long
term. They will be discussing this shortly with both sides of
the shipping industry in the United Kingdom. In the course of
such discussions they will be considering, among other things,
the extent to which the present requirements as to the
nationality of persons holding senior positions such as Master
and Chief Engineer may need to be relaxed. This is a difficult
and sensitive issue. The DTI feel that some flexibility as
regards nationality will be necessary - in any case they would
have to look carefully at this in connection with our possible
entry into the Common Market - but that they may well run into
strong resistance from representatives of the seafarers'
organisations. In brief, they believe that some relaxation of
the UK's present nationality rules in this context is probable
1
-
/but