CONFIDENT Ference
7
Mr Rushford (Legal Adviser)
WORLD WIDE SHIPPING
thesi
1.
You best saw papers it Flay to
From previous minuting on this subject you will be aware that Mr Y K Pao is interested in registering World Wide ships in Hong Kong. Mr William Lee, Mr Pao's representative in London,
(p.6 HKK 21/6M) recently called on Mr Royle and explained that in this context the
only real problem was that of manning. He gave the following example of the difficulties he foresaw. If a ship registered in Hong Kong had, with the agreement of the Director of Marine in Hong Kong, an alien as, say, Chief Engineer and if that Chief Engineer fell sick while the ship were in, for example, an Australian port, the company would have to seek approval from the Director of Marine in Hong Kong before putting anybody else into the Chief Engineer's place. All this would take time and time was money when one was dealing with large oil tankers. Mr Lee asked whether it would be possible to obtain some kind of blanket exemption, say, for a ship.
2.
We should be grateful for your advice.
ソ
Te Waiting
J A Clewley
Hong Kong Department
1 February 1972
Mr Rushford
I have delayed these papers in order to include
comments from the Shipping Division of the DTI. They
are as follows:-
(a) This is a matter for Mr Milburn, Director of
Marine Hong Kong to decide but, under the 1967
Merchant Shipping Act in the UK, it is not possible for
a ship to be given "blanket exemption" in the sense
meant by Mr Lee. Manning exemption could be granted
to a ship in special circumstances, e.g. for a ship
trading continually abroad where the service of British officers was difficult to obtain or accommodation was unsuitable - but, even in this case, the individual officer would still have to be vetted by UK authorities. What is possible, however, is for the owners of the ship to which special exception has been granted to submit to UK Authorities (ie. DTI) an advance list of officers (for whom full qualifications Here given) and for the DTI to give prior approval for any of these officers to take over in the event of one of them falling sick.
are
(b) Furthermore, providing reasonable efforts to obtain a suitable replacement have been made, there is an escape clause under UK law which allows a ship
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DD 896639 140609 500M 7/71 GM 3643/2
CONFIDENTIAL