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CONCLUSIONS
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agent on its behalf, and to allow for the case where the public authority of one country recognises for the purpose of employment on a national vessel the equiva- lence of certificates issued in another country.
Article 4, which is based on the replies to Question 4 (ante, p. 80), lays down in general terms three essential conditions which are to be complied with before a certifi- cate can be issued a minimum age, a certain period of professional experience, and the passing of one or more public examinations -and then goes on to require national laws or regulations to settle the details of the application of these conditions.
It may be recalled that, with a view to creating further guarantees of uniformity in the actual minimum requirements of professional competency, one Government (France) would have preferred to define and amplify the above three conditions by specifying a minimum age or ages, a minimum period of service at sea, and a minimum programme of the public examinations, and that two other Governments (Belgium, Italy) proposed to add other conditions, viz. the passing of a test of physical fitness, especially as regards sight and hearing, and proof of good character. In view of the replies of the Govern- ments as a whole, however, it has been left to the Conference itself to consider whether proposals on these lines should be added to the Draft Convention.
The last part of the Article contains a transitional provision by which any country would be allowed, during a period of three years after its ratification, to dispense with the condition as to the passing of a publie examination in the granting of certificates to persons who have already performed the duties for which the certificate is required for such a period of time and in such a satisfactory manner as to give sufficient guaran- tees of their professional capacity for their performance. This provision is intended to furnish a means of facili- tating ratification of the Draft Convention, without making any real breach in its principles, by countries which, if they wished to ratify, would have to make substantial changes in their existing national system in order to bring it into line with the provisions of the draft.
CONCLUSIONS
Article 5, which formulates the conclusions drawn from the Governments' replies to Question 6 (ante, p. 88), deals with the supervision of the enforcement of the rules of the draft. Its provisions are based on the principle that this supervision is reserved for the autho- rities of the country of the vessel. In its third paragraph, however, it assumes that ratifying countries might have a certain common interest in co-operating for ensuring the full success of the Draft Convention, but, in order to avoid friction between one ratifying country and another and still maintain the above principle, suggests a procedure by which, in so far as one ratifying country supervises in territorial waters vessels belonging to another ratifying country, breaches of the Convention found on such vessels would be reported to the consul of the country concerned with a view to any necessary action being taken by the authorities of the country of the vessel.
Article 6, which corresponds to Question 5 in the Questionnaire (ante, p. 85), deals with the question of sanctions. It first makes it an obligation on national laws or regulations to provide for such sanctions, whether penal or disciplinary, as are necessary to repress breaches in general of the rules relating to the possession of certi- ficates and to the conditions for granting them. It then specifies in particular three cases in which, on the face of them, there would be an obvious breach of these rules cases which were expressly or implicitly put to the Governments in the Questionnaire.
Subject to these observations the proposed Draft Convention is submitted in the following pages for the consideration of the Conference.
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