3
H.E. the Governor explained that Hong Kong's concern was whether
the D.T.I. team had obtained sufficient information for them to
write a report which would be understood by Hong Kong shipowners
and which would give shipowners the sort of details they required.
Dr. Cowley confirmed that the team had enough information for this
purpose. The point was that acceptance of Japanese equipment was,
in a way, tantamount to helping the Japanese to sell, probably
at the expense of British manufacturers. This involved commercial
considerations on which the team, being technical in nature,
could not make a judgement.
5
Turning to the question of manning, Captain Anderson
said the team were not satisfied with the size of the sample
which Worldwide Shipping had produced for interview. He pointed
out that this sample had consisted of only four junior officers
and one other. H.E. the Governor said he understood from a
discussion with Mr. Y.K. Pao that Worldwide's had in fact put
forward 13 officers for interview, and that nine of them were
considered qualified. Captain Anderson said that, although 13
had been put forward, only five of them were at the appropriately
senior level. This was quite insufficient in relation to the
size of Worldwide's fleet. H.E. the Governor said the difficulty
had arisen mainly out of the fact that Worldwide's ships did not
normally call at Hong Kong. He wondered how important this gap
really was, considering the fact that a significant proportion of
Worldwide's senior deck officers already held D.T.I. qualifications.
Captain Anderson said he was not sure whether this gap would be a
stumbling block, but thought that it should be bridged if at all
possible. Dr. Cowley agreed and added that Worldwide Shipping
should have been able to do better on the size of the officer
sample.
*