CO129-553-3 Anti-piracy measures 7-3-1935 - 4-11-1935 — Page 19

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take the place of, the ordinary Board of Trade certificates

and should be on a voluntary basis. For a number of

reasons, it was thought that only one class of certificate 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.

While the system was intended primarily for

British owned vessels it was agreed that ships in non- British ownership 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

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 be

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.

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