C.S. 41A
2600077
15,000-4/71-B86483
REF.
CR 4/5061/72
IE
CONFIDENTIAL
**Y No 51 21 JUN 1972
HKK 21/2
ре
In Gordfettre
Consider
wetter fo
DTI
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
リプ
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
with D 79th
Dear Michael,
CHONG KANG
June, 1972
ther
21-J1
Совит
20/4
Paseif 0/2.
(-)
21%
6
I am writing to you about a problem which has recently come to our attention concerning action being instigated by the International Transport Workers Federation (which is affiliated to the ICFTU) against shipowners operating under flags of convenience and/or employing so called "crews of convenience". The enclosed report on this (together with enclosures) by the Director of Marine provides a comprehensive account of what is involved. I am also enclosing a note which was distributed by Mr. G.M.B. Salmon to fellow members of the Legislative Council on 24th May, which explains the position in somewhat shorter and starker terms.
2.
The action proposed by the ITF would appear to stem from the current depression in the demand for shipping which has resulted in a certain amount of unemployment amongst European seamen. They are therefore trying to put pressure on shipowners who employ crews from developing countries, including Hong Kong, at lower wage rates in order to improve their own employment prospects. This might be understandable in the case of ships genuinely registered in developed countries but it could, because of our peculiar circumstances, have a particularly adverse effect on Hong Kong owned ships manned by Hong Kong crews, with wage rates and other conditions of service which are fully up to standard compared with other workers in Hong Kong but obviously below European levels. This is, as I explain below, because such ships must be either British registered or registered under flags of convenience and because it is difficult to get the seamen involved affiliated with the ITF.
3.
It would appear that the Australian maritime unions, including dockers' unions and the Australian Council of Trade Unions, are already beginning to put the ITF resolution into effect, although the extent to which they are doing so (and whether or not they are operating to a concerted plan) is not known. We do know, however, that two ships with Hong Kong interests have recently been threatened by sanctions in Australian ports. In the first incident, labour was withdrawn on two separate occasions from a ship manned by a Hong Kong crew. The second incident involved a British registered vessel crewed
E.O. Laird, Esq., C.M.G., M.B.E.,
Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
King Charles Street,
London, S.W.1.
CONFIDENTIAL