CO129-536-10 Need for leglisation concerning number of certificated officers carried on passenger ships 18-11-1931 - 15-6-1932 — Page 12

INTRODUCTION.

This is the second occasion on which the question of the minimum requirement of professional capacity in the case of masters and watch-keeping officers on board mer- chant ships1 is before the International Labour Conference, in accordance with the double-discussion procedure as regulated by the Conference's Standing Orders. The first stage of this procedure was passed when the Thirteenth Session of the Conference in 1929 held a preliminary discussion of the question on the basis of a Grey Report setting out the law and practice in the different countries, decided to place the question on the Agenda of a subse- quent Session with a view to the second and final discus- sion, and fixed the points relating to it which were to be included in a Questionnaire to be prepared by the Office and circulated to the Governments for the purpose of eliciting their views as to the nature of the proposals on the question which might be submitted for the consider- ation of the subsequent Session. This Questionnaire was communicated to the Governments in November 1929. To complete the second stage of the procedure the next Session of the Conference at which the above question is to be considered will accordingly have to deal with the question with a view to the adoption of proposals on it in the forms prescribed in Article 405 of the Treaty of Versailles, i.e. Draft Convention or Recom- mendation. To facilitate this task, the present Report, following the usual practice of the Blue Reports, fur- nishes the Conference with the replies of the Governments to the Questionnaire and certain draft proposals based on them which are intended to serve as a basis for discus- sion and decision.

The original inclusion of the problem of the minimum of professional capacity in the Agenda of the Conference was an indirect result of the collision which took place in

1 The actual wording of the item on the Agenda, as carried over from the Thirteenth Session of the Conference, is:

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Establishment by each maritime country of a minimum requirement of professional capacity in the case of captains, navigating and engineer officers in charge of watches on board merchant ships."

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