Desirability
5
From a Hong Kong point of view, a separate register involving the possibility
of the employment of any officer suitably certificated would confer enhanced prestige. Hong Kong's growing importance as a world shipping centre would be
recognised by the creation of its own register. It would also enable Hong Kong
owners to enjoy one of the major advantages of flag of convenience registration (flexibility of officering) without the opprobrium which increasingly attaches
to conventional FOC. This advantage would presumably offset the additional
costs involved in expanding the marine administration, building vessels to
UK requirements, etc. Whether it will be a real advantage in the longer term however is open to question since abolition of the requirement for British
officers would remove one of the main planks in the defence of Hong Kong against the charge, already levelled by the UNCTAD Secretariat, that registration
in Hong Kong amounts to flag of convenience registration.
(The other plank
is of course the fact that a high proportion of the tonnage registered there is beneficially owned there or in the UK).
6 In any case, the creation of a separate Hong Kong register is not in the UK's interest. So long as there is the unitary British flag it is not in our interest to increase its exposure to allegations of being an FOC by allowing increasing variation in the ways in which vessels are registered, manned and inspected. Acceding to Hong Kong pressures on officering would make it more difficult to resist demands from Bermuda, and possibly other territories, for a similar relaxation. Even more important, any relaxation of the British link in respect of Hong Kong would make it far harder to protect the British flag generally from the charge that its relatively liberal conditions of registration make it a flag of convenience, a charge which if successfully sustained in UNCTAD would damage Hong Kong and the other "sub-registers" as well as the UK itself. UK shipowners, including those who own tonnage in Hong Kong as part of the general British connection, have indicated that they would not welcome changes
that have come to be associated with the idea of the creation of a separate
register and the seamen's unions could also be expected to be hostile.
Finally, a separate Hong Kong register could prejudice maritime
relations with
including the chance of reaching
China,