CO129-303 - Public Offices & Others - 1900 — Page 69

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Paragraph 8. If it is in contemplation that Table "L" should be omitted, it will have to be consider- ed whether any alteration should be made in Clause 23 (1)

and 42 (2).

Paragraph 9. As the right of a Chinese person to own a British ship and fly the British flag is a very considerable concession, and an alteration of the Merchant Shipping Act, it might have been thought that the persons to whom such privileges are granted should increase

their security.

Paragraph 10.

These criticisms seem to be fair-

ly met by Clause 3 (13),8 (1) and 41 (1) and (2) of the Ordinance, and compare Section 261 of the Merchant Ship-

ping Act, 1894.

Paragraph 11. See my observations on paragraph 3 of Mr Lucas' letter, and considering that d, e, f, and g

of sub-section 5 of Clause 9 relate to matters of disci-

pline on board foreign ships, I see no reason why the nation to which the ship belongs should not bear the

charge.

Paragraph 12. As regards this paragraph, I am inclined to think that the proposal in paragraph 7 of the Governor's Memorandum is sound in principle, but probably it would be better to give effect to that principle by enacting that the Colonial Court should non- suit the Chinese owner if it were shown that the collision was due to his non-observance of the collision regulations. This would be a less drastic remedy than precluding the Chinese owner from suing in a Colonial Court until his Government had adopted the International regulations.

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