DRAFT
PRIME MINISTER
PROPOSED HONG KONG REGISTER OF SHIPPING
I had useful discussions in Hong Kong both with the Governor
and with the leading Hong Kong shipowners about the draft terms
on which the setting up of a separate Hong Kong register of
shipping might be approved. A vital element is that the
Governor must be able to ensure that such a move would not
result in standards of safety and manning required in Hong
Kong ships being inferior to those in ships registered in the UK.
Although the terms we had suggested did not go as far as long
Kong shipowners would like the main difference is that we
cannot, in my view, agree to vary our own existing requirements
at Master level I think they constitute a fair basis on which
we could proceed. We are now awaiting the Governor's formal reply (which he has been asked to expedite) to the draft
proposals put to him in our consultative document.
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Meanwhile I have had separate talks this week with representa- tives of both sides of the UK shipping industry. They both
expressed serious concern on certain aspects, stressing in
particular that the setting up of a separate Hong Kong
register is likely to be generally regarded as evidence that
ships flying the Red Ensign will have different standards of
safety and manning depending on whether they are registered in
Hong Kong or in the UK and the assumption will be that the
Hong Kong standards will be inferior. The UK shipowners raised
a number of specific points which I undertook to consider. It should not take long to deal with these outstanding matters and I will let you have my final conclusions and recommendations
very soon.