mg
THE DEPARTMENT
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276
Ms PA Major
Hong Kong Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
LONDON
SW1A 2AH
GTN
Our Ref:
SHIP 13/2/04
HKC175/1
Date:
June 1991
Dear Pamela,
HONG KONG SHIPPING REGISTER
1.
H
Miss Brooks.
Mr
Sainty.
Grateful if you
would
now take this back on.
hu 1816.
Tel out
(S
201
Thank you for your letter of 21 May and the enclosures. Diana Gwynn had earlier told us of this alleged problem, which has been discussed with Colin Ingram, our Legal Adviser, and we passed our
( minute Ingram to Scult of 24/4)-(27)
conclusions to her.
2. Our view is that there is no real difficulty. The red ensign still flies. Hong Kong is not a nation its pennant is hardly "distinctive national colours" A concerned master could haul it down in any port other than Hong Kong. A Hong Kong ship flying the two flags will have no problem with S.69 pretending to be British but owned by non qualifiers.
3.
-
If we agreed to a problem we
a problem we consider section 78 of Merchant Shipping Act 1906 as being an unsatisfactory manner of solving it. First, it has never been used for class of ships, only individual ones. The Secretary of State has to put a report before (both Houses of) Parliament annually naming the ships. This could highlight the unsatisfactory situation which may not be your wish. Second we regard the use of section 78 as merely a matter of UK law, and it is unlikely to exempt Hong Kong ships from compliance with section 73 in other territories unless they too were to make, or even had the powers to make exemptions.
4.
I shall write to other British territories' registrars explaining the Hong Kong position, but you may wish to write formally to Governors.
yours sincerely ужно
Alan Smith
A SCUTT
Domestic Shipping Policy & Emergencies
Letter only addressed
is
My maju!
in An
option 4 in
letter of 21 May. We will
probably need to
the others.
verest in
р.а
pa soli