нев
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CONFIDENTIAL
香港總督府
RECEIVED IN
II
REGISTRY No. 51
CR 14/5061/70
27 FEB 1974
HKK 21/3.
مسلسل
My der Andrew.
18
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
20th. February, 1974.
To ma
a with
papers
AB 25/2
Your telegrams 154 and 155 about the
Hong Kong Register of Shipping.
We were extremely disappointed in the D.T.I team's conclusions. They had given no hint of these while they were here, and I enclose a copy of our record of their final meeting with me.
I also enclose a copy of a short note prepared by Worldwide Shipping on the results of the D.T.I. examination of candidates from all ship owners and with particular regard to the D.T.I.'s charge that Worldwide's quota of candidates was inadequate. From this you will see that out of 43 alien officers interviewed the D.T.I. team considered over half to be qualified, and in conversation the team said they had been agreeably surprised.
In the face of this the new requirement for written examinations to be preceded by a full- time course is a little hard to understand, and is a substantial step backwards.
The desire to get a quid pro quo out of the Japanese if their equipment is made acceptable for a Hong Kong British Register is at least under- standable in commercial terms, though it seems to be based on an assumption that acceptance of Japanese equipment for ships on the Hong Kong Register would lose business for British firms. Of course it would not do anything of the sort because the ships of Hong Kong owners are not now on the U.K. Register and they use whatever equipment they
LASI
74
15)
A.C. Stuart, Esq.,
SX7
28
R
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Department Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
London. S.W.1.
CONFIDENTIAL