and for life saving appliances. In the event of a separate register being
extablished in Hong Kong it is possible that the Hong Kong Government
might be more vulnerable to pressure to apply lower atendards than at present,
whilst still complying with international obligations. Hong Kong's standards
could be reduced to a level similar to those of some flag of convenience
countries, which are significantly lower in practice, if not on paper, than
UK standards, with a resultant increase in casucities. If Hong Kong
continued to apply construction and equipment standards for Hong Kong registered
ships similar to those already in fo.ce, then shipowners would find little
practical difference from the present situation.
CERTIFICATION AND MANNING
Hong Kong law on certification and manning follows UK law, namely, the master,
first mate, chief engineer, and radio officer serving in Hong Kong registered
ships must be certificated through examination at a UK Government approved
centre in the UK or Commonwealth. These certificates of competency, which may
only be held by British or Commonwealth subjects, are of equivalent standard
to the corresponding UK certificates. This conforms with the Commonwealth
concept of maintaining common safety standards and is a logical arrangement,
having in mind that the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 permits British shipowners
to transfer the registry of their ships from one British port of registry
to another if they so wish.
Two courses of action appear to be open to the Hong Kong administration, with-
legislative changes, to meet Mr Pao's wishes:-
out
1 To recognise certificates of competency issued by other countries as
meeting the requirements of the Hong Kong law;
2 To issue certificates of competency to foreign nationals to serve as master,
first mate, chief engineer or radio officer on Hong Kong registered vessels.
The first course would have difficulties for the UK not only because it would