vember 1992
LAST PAPER
Mrs A Chan
Secretary for Economic Services
Economic Services Branch
2nd Floor, Main and East Wings Central Government Offices Lower Albert Road
HONG KONG
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SW1A 2AH
Telephone: 071-
нис
HKC 370/6.
Dear Ms Chan,
REPEAL OF SECTION 238 OF MSA 1894 -
1.
I am writing to let you know that the Department of Transport are planning to repeal this legislation by Order in Council.
2. The background is that at one time the United Kingdom had a large number of treaties providing for mutual assistance in the recovery of seamen deserters; these were originally implemented through Orders under Section 238 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, which was subsequently replaced for the United Kingdom by Section 89 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1970, but remained in force in dependent territories.
3. However, because of international criticism of these provisions on human rights' ground, HMG embarked, about ten years ago, upon a programme of persuading the countries with which we had treaties on this subject that those treaties should be terminated; the ultimate objective was that Section 238 of the 1894 Act and Section 89 of the 1970 Act should be repealed.
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4. Most treaties have now been terminated. The only treaty provision which is still in place on this subject is one with Yugoslavia. We would probably take the view that the obligations under this Treaty have been succeeded to by the various former Yugoslav Republics. However, as you will appreciate, now does not seem the time to approach them on an essentially minor and technical matter of this sort. In any event, under the Treaty with Yugoslavia the obligation is only to give "such assistance as can by law be given" for the recovery of merchant seamen deserters.
are not required to have any special procedure in our law relating to the recovery of seamen deserters, but instead we can rely upon the normal immigration rules applicable in our territories, which in general would prevent a merchant seamen deserter from being able to remain in the territory. This means that we do not need the special procedure set out in Section 238 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 in order to carry out the obligation in the Treaty with Yugoslavia. Unless we hear to the contrary by the end of November, we shall assume that you have no difficulty with these proposals.