PROBLEM
Officer Manning
Under existing law
British registered
ships in Hong Kong
must have Masters,
Chief Officers and
Chief Engineers who
possess British
Certificates of
Competency. (2A & 3).
Such officers are in
short supply and
Pao wishes to engage
COMMENT AND POSSIBLE SOLUTION
(a) A short term solution would be
exemptions of up to 1 year (4A)
granted by Director of Marine,
Hong Kong, under delegated
powers provided in the Merchant
Shipping (Aliens Employment)
Ordinance.
Ordinances). The Hong Kong
Government are prepared to do
this (5A) and there is no legal
objection (6).
(Attached
DEGREE OF ACCEPTABILITY
(a) Host unlikely to be acceptable to
Kr Pao (7A). The main reason is the
lack of guarantee that a suitably
qualified British Officer could not
insist on replacing Mr Pao's nominee
whose exemption had expired outside
Hong Kong. In practice, news that
Hong Kong were allowing renewable
exceptions would soon become common
knowledge in maritime circles and
complaint from unemployed Masters or
Chief Officers holding Masters
Certificates if a foreign Master were
FROBLEM
COMMENT AND FOSSIBLE SOLUTION
DEGREE OF ACCEPTABILITY
(b) A long term solution would be to
(b)
Unlikely to be acceptable to
PMG, Hong Kong or Mr Pao becau®
invoke Section 735(1) of the
8 Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (388)
in order to vary nationality
requirements.
Legal advice (55)6)
is that there would be no
objection to this solution.
(c) A long term solution whereby
Hong Kong established its own register quite separate from
the central Aritish Registry in
Hong Kong could not then remain
part of the British Register
464 (110-Q5(a))
DTI see no
advantage to HM in Hong Kong
remaining under overall British
registry but operating under
different or lower standards
(AP) (40-66(0))*
see (c) below.
For other reasons,
(c) (1) Whether or not this would
be acceptable to Mr Pao in
not known and depends on
how much he valva ozironmeėrė 8-
PROBLEM
COMMENT AND POSSIBLE SOLUTION
not enjoy the benefits available
to British ships in Britain or her
dependencies and,
because
Commonwealth maritime countries
have adopted merchant shipping
legislation similar to UK,
benefits in Commonwealth countries
would also be denied them.
In
Zoreign countries British Consular
service would not be available.
DEGREE OF ACCEPTABILITY
(iii)
operate outside Hong
Kong the only financial
advantage from Mr Pao
would be a one-time
payment of about £98,000
for registration (35).
Hong Kong could, of
course,
increase its
registration fees and
night perhaps attract
extra tonnage not at
present eligible for
registration on British
standards.
AE The effect on UK (1007)
is likely to be to its
disadvantage mainly
because Britain would
PROBLEM
COMMENT AND POSSIBLE SOLUTION
DEGREE OF ACCEPTABILITY
presumably Hong Kong registered
ships could fly a different flag,
the fact that Hong Kong can never
be independent, means that, unless
the Governments of UK and Hong
Kong are to be wholly inconsistent,
rules for international
-
subjects must be the same Or,
at least, this is what the world
would expect.