CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1
Telephone 01-
Your reference
LA
J N Archer Esq
Department of Trade & Industry
Sunley House
90/93 High Holborn
Our reference Hiki 21h
Date
13 June 1973
London WC1
56
Dear John,
HONG KONG REGISTER
1. I have now received your minute of 11 June with the attached draft.
2.
I fully agree that this is now much better tailored to the sensitivities of the Hong Kong Government. I would suggest, however, that you might get some additional, if small, cosmetic advantage by reversing the order of the "advantages of the proposal to second surveyors to Hong Kong" set out towards the end of the paper.
3. We will also need to be careful about the definition of "existing Hong Kong shipowners". I have not yet seen the Director of Marine's note and am therefore not sure what his criteria are, but we would not want communist Chinese or Taiwanese owners with a base of operations in Hong Kong to be able to take advantage of the Red Ensign. There is also presumably the problem of British companies, Jardines and Butterfield & Swire, who have through their associates ships both in the UK and in Hong Kong.
Yours ever,
Andrew &
A C Stuart
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Department
CONFIDENTIAL
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