foreign Masters, Chief Officers or Chief
Engineers might be employed temporarily, Mr Pao
reiterated that "existing manning problems caused by
shortage of eligible personnel would have to be
overcome" before he could register more of his
shipping in Hong Kong.
4. Answers to the questionnaire sent to the
Department of Trade and Industry at their request as
a result of this letter have now been received and
summarised.
ARGUMENT
5. Despite relatively minor difficulties relating
to equipment, the main problem is that of "officer
manning". Four solutions legally acceptable to
•
HMG have been suggested.
(a)
Exemptions of up to one year's duration
granted by the Director of Marine, Hong
Kong, under delegated powers provided in
the Merchant Shipping (Aliens Employment)
Ordinance. Mr Pao has indicated that a
short term solution of exemptions is not
acceptable mainly because there is no
guarantee that he would not be placed in
an "intolerable predicament" by a British
certificated officer insisting on
replacing a foreigner employed by World
Wide Shipping whose exemption expired.
outside Hong Kong. Even with a valid
exemption a foreign officer might be in
difficulty in British or Commonwealth
ports. From HMG's point of view, news
that Hong Kong were allowing renewable
/exemptions
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