LLOYD'S LIST
THURSDAY 5 APRIL 1973
to
Officers protest të
DTI about 'odious Hong Kong flag idea
THE PROPOSAL to create a Hong Group, threw his weight behind the
Kong shipping register has been bitterly attached by Mr John Slater, general secretary of the Merchant Navy & Airline Officers' Association.
proposal a few months ago.
The reasons he gave for supporting a Hiong Kong register included a shortage of British certificated officers and British nationals to fill senior posts; and the restrictions of UK shipbuilding
Mr Slater, writing in the current issue of the association's newspaper "The Telegraph." reveals that he has pro- tested about the proposal to top-level regulations. Department of Trade and Industry officials.
He says he has received reports which indicate that pressure is being put on the british Government to allow Hong Kong to set up an autonomous register of shipping.
"I find it difficult, although not im- possible, to believe that the British Government will become a party to arrangements which would, if reports currently circulating are accurate, re- suit in the setting up of a flag of con- venience registry in Hong Kong," says
M: Slater.
Flag of convenience countries attracted Hong Kong owners because there was no legal requirement to use senior officers who were British or Commonwealth nationals, said Mr Pao.
He added that UK building regula- tions presented Hong Kong owners with; problems. For example, the rules governing crew accommodation, while they might be necessary for British seamen, did not always provide the optimum arrangement for Asians.
Next Tuesday the shipowners are: expected to reply to the officerd pay claim for 1973-74 and almost on the eve of this meeting Mr Slater warns ** I have protested to top-level
the employers not to shelter behind Depatment of Trade and Industry the pay and price legislation.
atives chei pie possibility of
a catastrophic situation, its prob- able impact on UK shipping and the istae tional odium which would be the rend of the British Government."
The eliteers' la.der points out that a good deal of time and energy has been expended in seeking to improve safety standards by traditional maritime coun- 115. "Are we about to witness a
voite-face?" he asks.
It is paradoxital, says Mr Slater, that the Government should try on the one hand to iniprove safety and give way
He says that British officers enjoy pay and conditions "substantially in- ferior" to those of most other Earo. pean countries.
Government policy on inlation is hardly applicable to shipping because of the international character of the industry, argues Mr Slater. large extent owners are as free as they ever have been to fix their own prices, freights and charges, he states.
To a very
"On the other hand we, as UK sea- farers, will have an outside limiting body whose function may be to limit
¡ ...
suspicová dim. vie ! who will be only too willing to shelter
the Government', Graind
has been in the air for some time.
Mẹ Y. K. Pon, head of the massive Hong Kong-based World-Wide Shipping ments," says the oncers' leader.