A
should be issued and not three as proposed by the Commander-in-Chief, and that the issue should be
conditional upon
(a) the fitting of adequate grilles;
(b) the provision of efficient guards;
(c) The provision of an efficient W/T apparatus
of adequate power and a fully qualified operator, who should be employed full time on this duty.
Foreign owned ships should be eligible to
apply for these certificates, which, it was considered, would best be issued by the Government of Hong Kong and the Consul-General at Shanghai. Inspection would of course be obligatory before a certificate was granted, and the cost of the scheme would have to be borne, in some way or other, by the companies.
As regards procedure it was decided that
be
in view of the possible existence of difficulties which could only be appreciated locally (e.g. the lack of adequate surveying staff at Shanghai, and the possible need for legislative sanctions in order, for instance, to prevent the misuse of certificates) the Hong Kong Government and the Consul-General should first consulted by the Colonial Office and Foreign Office, respectively, and that if the scheme still appeared practicable, the Shipping Companies should then be sounded, preferably through their representatives in London, in order to ascertain whether they would
co-operate in it.
5. “/T Communication.
The Chairman summarised the present position and pointed out that the Commander-in-Chief's report
showed/
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