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It has already been brought to the notice of the
Board that the vessels of the Austrian Lloyds Steam
Navigation Company run largely between Trieste and ports
in India and the Far East, and that for the purposes
of the Company's business it is necessary for them to
obtain Passenger Certificates, or migration Licences,
under the Regulations in force at the British ports
at which they call. The Company's Headquarters being at
Trieste, at which port' it possesses dry docke and other
facilities, it is naturally considered con enient and
economical to dock the Company's vessels at that port
and to take advantage of the opportunities thus afforded
to carry out at least such parts of the surveys for
Passenger Certificates as involve docking.
For the last twenty years this Society'e Surveyors
at Trieste have been called in on such occasions with a
view to their issuing docking certificates, and these
certificates have always been recognised by the Authori-
ties at Hong Kong, Bombay, Karachi, No difficulty
has been gads about grunting Passenger Certificates to
vessels so provided, when the Government Officials have
satisfied themselves that the remaining requiremente of
the local Regulations have been complied with; and on
no single occasion, so far as the Committee are aware,
has the trustworthiness of the Society's docking certifi-
cates been called in question.
The recent action of the Hong Kong Authorities in
refusing to grant Emigration Licences to foreign vessels
unless they are provided with valid Passenger Certificates
from the country to which they respectively belong, and
the proposal of the Bombay Government to exempt from survey
by