85
GENERAL SURVEY
80
81
To sum up on Question 3, then, it is proposed that the draft to be submitted to the Conference should apply to any vessel engaged in maritime navigation, excluding ships of war, Government vessels and vessels in the service of a public authority which are not engaged in trade, and pleasure yachts, and should leave it open to national laws or regulations to allow exemptions or exceptions in respect of vessels under 200 tons.
Questions 4-5.
Before proceeding to examine the replies to the three remaining Questions in the Questionnaire, it may be recalled that the Committee of the Thirteenth Session of the Conference did not put the same importance on the subject-matter of these Questions as on the three which have already been reviewed in the preceding pages. It indicated that the first three Questions were those which it was specially important to deal with in the Draft Convention, but that the Office should be requested to consult the Governments also as to the desirability of including provisions on the last three Questions in the international regulations.
Though the attention of the Governments was drawn to this distinction made by the Thirteenth Session, in the commentary accompanying the Questionnaire, it is noteworthy that no reference has been to it in the great majority of the replies of the Governments, which have, in fact, except in one or two cases to be noted later, treated all the Questions in the Questionnaire on the same footing with reference to their inclusion in the Draft Convention. Moreover, the two Governments which have specifically alluded to the point here in question (India, Poland) have done so in order to emphasise that in their view the Draft Convention should contain proposals not only on Questions 1 to 3 but also on Questions 4 to 6.
IV.
Conditions for obtaning certificates (Question 4). Question 4, then, asked whether it was desirable, while leaving it to national laws or regulations to settle in detail the conditions for granting certificates for the performance of any of the four categories of duties
QUESTION
covered by the item on the Agenda, to indicate in the international regulations that these conditions as a whole are to be directed towards securing the following guarantees :
(a)
a minimum age;
(b) a certain standard of professional experience (length of service at sea, a qualifying period in the engine-room or in workshops, etc.);
(c) the passing of one or more examinations organised and supervised by the public authorities. This Question proceeded on the assumption that it would be difficult to frame for international application uniform rules as to the details of the actual minimum requirements to be satisfied by candidates for one or other of the certificates in question. These details, in fact, differ considerably not only between country and country but also in accordance with the system of grading certificates adopted in one and the same country for the purposes of the different classes of national navigation. The Question nevertheless contemplated that the international regulations might well prescribe that the three general conditions mentioned above should be satisfied before a certificate was issued, and at the same time require national laws or regulations to settle the details of their application in the individual country. Each national system of minimum requirements would thus start from the same fundamental bases and to this extent certain international guarantees of uniformity would be provided.
Except the Netherlands, which considers that the subject-matter of Question 4 should be dealt with in a Recommendation, though the regulations in that country are based on the three general conditions mentioned in the Question, all the Governments appear to be agreed that a provision on the lines of the Question should be included in the Draft Convention. It may be assumed that the view of these Governments is that, as the French Government expressly indicates, the Draft Convention would be incomplete for the purposes it has in view if it merely laid down the obligation of a minimum require- ment of professional competency and gave no indications as to what should constitute such a minimum.
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