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4. The definition of "British ships" as provided in the Order
excluded ships registered in the independent countries of the
Commonwealth and those countries were individually named in the
During the period 1955/58 the Gold Coast and the Federation
of Malaya both achieved independence and in 1958 the Order was amended (by the Requisitioning of Ships (Amendment) Order, 1958) to
take account of this fact. Neither the 1955 Order nor the amending
Order.
Order of 1958 was ever published or brought into force: both
Orders were and still are held in readiness against the occurrence
of an emergency in Hong Kong.
5. The Orders have again become out of date by reason of the fact
that a number of other Commonwealth territories have achieved
independence since 1958 and the Orders could not be published or
brought into force in their present form.
6. The powers to requisition shipping were an integral part of
former plans for the evacuation of Hong Kong. The then current
plan was itself out of date when Ministers decided in 1967 to suspend all such planning (OPD (67) 40th Meeting) and it is unlikely
that any substitute evacuation plan will be prepared.
Argument
7. Now that there is no longer a plan for the evacuation of
Hong Kong, it is arguable that it is not necessary to continue in
being the Order in Council designed to provide powers for
requisiti oning British shipping. But when Minis ters took their
decision in 1968 to suspend evacuation planning they envisaged that,
in the event of an emergency, a limited "crash" operation to
evacuate certain sensitive and vulnerable people would be carried
The powers of requisition might be needed for this.
out.
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