CO129-536-10 Need for leglisation concerning number of certificated officers carried on passenger ships 18-11-1931 - 15-6-1932 — Page 36

ماد

REPLIES OF THE GOVERNMENTS

NORWAY

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6. In principle we are of opinion that the supervision of the enforcement of the rules should be reserved for the authorities of the native country of the vessel.

However, foreign authorities should be empowered to detain a vessel if the non-compliance with the laws or regulations is of such a character as to be an evident danger for the safety of the vessel at sea.

POLAND

6. The question of the professional capacity of masters and officers in the mercantile marine has a direct bearing on the question of the safety of vessels and of international shipping. Accordingly, the supervision of the application of the provisions on the question should be entrusted to the authorities who supervise, by means of the inspection of vessels, the whole body of matters relating to the safety of vessels and navigation. It is in the interests of such safety that these authorities should have the power to detain a vessel if it does not carry the certificated officers required by law.

Further, the Polish Government considers that it is desirable to insert in the Draft Convention not only the proposals referred to under questions 1 to 3 of the Questionnaire, but also those included under questions 4 and 5.

RUMANIA

6. It is considered desirable to provide for special measures for supervising the enforcement of the provisions laid down by the Draft Convention. The authorities responsible for ensuring observance of the laws or regulations relating to the safety of navigation should be empowered even to detain a vessel not carrying the duly certificated officers required.

The supervision in question here should be exercised by the national authorities only for vessels flying the national flag.

SOUTH AFRICA

See reply under Question 1, ante, p. 18.

SPAIN

6. An affirmative reply is returned to the question whether provision should be made for special measures for supervising the enforcement of the Convention once it is ratified by the States Members.

It seems clear that the authorities are not only entitled, but in proper cases have the duty, to arrest a vessel not carrying

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QUESTION 6

the certificated officers required. However. it should be observed that such breaches should not in all cases have the same consequences as regards the ordering of detention by the authorities. The situation varies where the case concerns a vessel which carries a master and other officers, one of whom only has been engaged irregularly and where it concerns other vessels on which the person in default is the master, the skipper, or the chief engineer himself. Power to detain a vessel should accordingly be given with the indication that where the authority finds that there is no sufficient guarantee of profes- sional capacity for command of the vessel or the running of its engine-room, it has the duty incumbent on it to detain the vessel. It might be added, in order to avoid consider- able loss, that the authority may engage as master a person selected from among holders of certificates who are available in the port, after agreement with the shipowner or his agent whenever that is possible, or, in default of such agree- ment, on condition that these parties are notified that the authority in question reserves the right to decide who should be entrusted with the running of the vessel as far as a port where the shipowner is to replace a master thus appointed by another selected by himself.

In view of the diversity of cases which may arise it is suggested that the Convention should confine itself to laying down the general principle, leaving it to national laws or regulations to settle the methods of application so as to reconcile the general interests of navigation with the professional capacity of masters and engineers and the interests of sea borne trade which require that delays should be avoided.

SWEDEN

6. Supervision of the enforcement of the provisions in question should, as a rule, be left to the national authorities of the ship.

In this connection the international regulations should, it would appear, simply contain a general provision as to the taking by the different countries of measures for supervising the enforcement of the provisions referred to above.

Under the legislative provisions in Sweden, which it would appear can be regarded as reasonable, the detention of a ship on account of the insufficiency of the crew can only take place in cases where there is obvious danger for the lives of the persons on board.

YUGOSLAVIA

6. The reply is in the affirmative, but only national authorities.

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