CONFIDENTIAL
W/21
Flag A
Mr Wilford
wifford Si D
Watson PS Mr Royle/
Sir D Watson
ليليان
23/3
But will
Ви
Mr. Will JM233 4.K Pao.
Mr. Strait (comon)
HONG KONG REGISTER OF SHIPPING
1.
necept
The exclusion
At 15 Makes
Свойст
Engineers?
A.R.
The Director of Marine and Deputy Economic Secretary,
Hong Kong have been in London this week for discussions with
the DTI and with Mr Heseltine. I have attended most of the
meetings.
2.
21
After a rather s tormy start, discussions were narrowed
down to the terms of the attached "Draft Consultative
Document". This was put forward by the DTI as a UK proposal
arising out of the discussions. The Hong Kong team in the
end said they thought that, with one exception, it should be
possible to persuade Mr Y K Pao and other Hong Kong ship
owners to accept the arrangements in the paper as sufficient
to induce them to transfer a reasonable number of their ships
onto a new Hong Kong register. The exception was the refusal
by the UK side to accept foreign certificates for First Mate
and Chief Engineer without re-qualification. The Hong Kong
team said that their existing power of dispensation for such
officers would not be sufficient since, in view of the shortage
of British officers, Mr Pao would want to be sure in advance
that he could employ foreign First Officers on all his ships.
He would also, of course, like a blanket assurance that
foreign Masters would be accepted as well. But the Hong Kong
team believed that he would accept the prospect of LEC
/discussions
CONFIDENTIAL