6.
However, this is not a matter which we can decide here in the FCO. Admiralty jurisdiction is, I understand, partly a matter for the Lord Chancellor's Department and partly a matter for the Shipping Policy Directorate of the Department of Transport. I would therefore suggest you send copies of the Hong Kong telegram number 1479, and appropriate extracts from this minute, together with the draft, to Mr Seaton in the Lord Chancellor's Department and Mr Hennes in the Shipping Policy Directorate.
7. We had hoped to take this Order at the Council on 5 June, which would have required delivering the drafts to the Privy Council Office on 30 May. In view of the doubt about agreement on merchant shipping, and this new request, I think we may have to defer a submission to the Council which will meet on 8 July. The latter would involve laying this Order before Parliament on 16 July and bringing it into operation not earlier than 7 August.
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Paul Fifoot