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did not stipulate that these officers should have British nationality, solely that they should have British certificates. Marine Division are recommending that Hong Kong should be authorised to liberalise and whenever a British certificated officer in these grades was not immediately available that they should accept a certificate of comparable standard issued by eg other Western European states. Here Mr Standen noted a difference between the approach of the Hong Kong Government and that of Y K Pao.
6.
The Hong Kong Government said that the Master must be British in the sense of the UK legislation, ie this would include Hong Kong British Subjects. They also wished Chief Mates and Chief Engineers to be treated in the way that Marine Division proposed that Hong Kong should deal with Second Mates and Second Engineers, namely that they should not necessarily be of British nationality. Worldwide Shipping, however, wanted the Master and any certificated officer to be employed regardless of nationality provided he had competent certificates. Mr Standen said the recruitment diffi- culties were severest in the Second Officer and Second Engineer grades. The Hong Kong Government aim would not satisfy Y K Pao and would require new United Kingdom legislation since the 1894 Act specified that the Master and Chief Mate and Chief Engineer must be of British nationality in all UK and Colonial registered ships.
7. Mr Standen argued that these 2 relaxations (over standards and Second Mate and Second Engineer recruit- ment) were those most required by Hong Kong. Even were they to have their own Register they could not go further unless UK legislation absolved them from the present restrictions enforced through various Acts of Parliament which applied to all Commonwealth shipping plying as British ships.
On the other hand the objections to giving Hong Kong the authoritiy to set up a Register and to establish its own criteria were as follows:
8.
1.
2.
In particular it would run counter to the 1931 Shipping Act and the Commonwealth Shipping Agreements on manning which is along the same lines in all parties to the agreement. It would create difficulties for Hong Kong in eg Australian ports.
If ship: owners in Hong Kong, a British dependency, were allowed to employ non-British officers in the 3 most senior posts, UK ship owners could justifiably request the same treatment. This would inevitably lead to serious t rouble with the Unions.
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