DEPARTMENT OF TRADE & INDUSTRY
BOARD OFXTRADEXX
Marine Division
Sunley House 90 High Holborn London WC1V 6LP
Telex 264084 Answer Back MARBOT London
Telegrams Marbot London WC1
IN
REGN.51
10 MAR 1972
Telephone 01-405 6911 ext
NICK 21/2
J A Clewley Esq
Hong Kong Dept
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
LONDON SW1
P
Your reference
MC49/20/017
Our reference
Date
February 1972
10
Dear Clewley
Thank you for your letter of 1 February about the manning of Mr Pao's ships registered in Hong Kong.
As I explained over the telephone, the DTI have no jurisdiction over the carriage of certificated officers in British ships registered in Commonwealth countries,
Each Commonwealth country other than the UK when sailing from ports outside the UK.
has its own merchant shipping legislation and although they all follow broadly the same pattern as our own Merchant Shipping Acts there are certain local requirements which have to be complied with.
As far as the UK is concerned, the position in a nutshell is that we have authority under Section 78 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1906 to exempt any ship from any specified requirement of the Merchant Shipping Acts, and under this authority we have granted blanket exemptions of the sort referred to by Mr Pao's representative in circumstances where special considerations apply eg in the case of certain British registered vessels plying in the Persian Gulf where the accommodation on the vessel is well below DTI standards, or for vessels sailing in areas where there is little or no likelihood of attracting duly certificated officers into the statutory positions.
I also explained that under the Merchant Shipping Act 1967 a vessel may to go sea from a place outside the UK with an alien as substitute for one, but only one, of its duly certificated officers, for a period not exceeding 28 days.
I hope this gives you what you want.
Yours sincerely
C. ANN.
JB SHOULER
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لماليه