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GENERAL SURVEY
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to fix an all-round tonnage limit as a uniform rule for all countries than to endeavour to take account of other and secondary factors and so perhaps complicate the discus- sions of the Conference unnecessarily and without in the end securing any counterbalancing advantages.
The Office has accordingly carefully studied the views Governments in an expressed by all the different endeavour to arrive at a tonnage limit which it would seem at present might be expected to form a reasonable starting point for the discussions of the Conference. On this basis it would appear that the most suitable compro- mise to submit to the Conference would be a figure of 200 tons. If this figure is compared with the replies of the Governments it will no doubt be found that it exceeds the figures proposed by a number of important maritime countries, while on the other hand it is only exceeded in a comparatively few cases by the specific figures contained in other replies (e.g. Germany: 500 tons, and
- in respect of engine-room officers 1000 h.p.). All the same, it appears calculated to give satisfaction to a considerable majority of the replies, while at the same time going some way to meet those Governments which would prefer for the present to allow whole trades or the whole fishing industry to be excluded without any reference to tonnage.
(iv) Special observations. It remains to note that two countries (India and Japan) have. accompanied the figures already given for them in the list of specific exceptions (ante, p. 71) by certain special reservations or additional proposals which should be brought to the attention of the Conference.
India considers that, if the Draft Convention indicates that the standard of professional experience for an engineer in charge of a watch should be, as is the case in India, an engineer apprenticeship in workshops followed by a period of sea service as engineer on regular watch, the exceptions in regard to engineers could not be limited to those of a minor chacracter, because to do so would place serious obstacles in the way of men who have completed their workshop training acquiring the necessary sea service and would prevent, without any corresponding advantage, smaller steamers from em- ploying as 3rd and 4th engineers men who have completed the one but not acquired the other. In such a contingency
QUESTION 3
as is contemplated the Indian Government accordingly suggests that (a) cargo vessels with engines of under 1,000 i.h.p., and (b) passenger vessels (vessels carrying more than 12 passengers) with engines of under 1,000 i.h.p. and cargo vessels with engines under 2,000 i.h.p., performing voyages in the course of which they do not proceed more than 200 miles from the nearest land, should be exempted from the Draft Convention in respect of engineer officers in charge of a watch.
Similarly, Japan makes the following additional proposal, viz., that the following persons should be entitled, "without holding certificates, to stand on watch when they are under the supervision of certificated navigating or engineer officers respectively who are on board the same vessel :
(1) navigating officers on sailing vessels;
(2) navigating and engineer officers on vessels engaged in the coast-wise trade with propelling machinery;
(3) navigating officers on vessels under 1,000 tons gross with propelling machinery;
(4) engineer officers on vessels with main propelling machinery under 2,500 m.i.h.p."
In view of the special nature of these proposals it is felt that it would be preferable to leave them to be further developed, if necessary, by the representatives of the Governments concerned at the Conference itself. It may simply be noted for the present, in regard to the Indian proposals, that, as will be seen later in the examination of Question 4 in the Questionnaire (post, p. 80), it is proposed there to indicate in the Draft Convention simply that a certain standard of professional experience is to be required, without specifying what this is to consist of; and, in regard to the Japanese as well as the Indian proposals, that there would of course be nothing in the Draft Convention to prevent an uncertificated person being on watch duty and actually doing the work of watch officer so long as he was acting under the immediate supervision of a certificated officer who was regularly in charge of the watch. For the rest, and subject to the reservation of the above proposals for the Conference itself, it is considered that the limit of 200 tons should be maintained as the basis for discussion.
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