(HKK 10/8)
TOP SECRET
Hong Kong Department,
30 June, 1969
The Requisitioning of Ships Order, 1955
The enclosed memorandum with its annexures sets out the background to the subject matter of this letter. The last reference that I can give you is top secret letter FED 528/ 400/03 of 31 January, 1958, addressed by the Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Private Secretary to the Prime Minister and copied to the Private Secretary to the Minister of Defence.
Perhaps you would be good enough to let me know whether you see any objection to our going ahead with the making of the Requisitioning of Ships Order, 1969, (see Annex C to the enclosed memorandum). You will note that what we are proposing amounts to little more than a formality and is intended merely to revoke the existing 1955 and 1958 Orders and replace them by an up-to-date version. On a point of detail, it seems to us to be preferable for the revocation provision in Clause 6 of the new draft Order to be put into a separate Order so that if it ever became necessary for the new Order to be published and brought into effect, such publication would not disclose the existence of the 1955 and 1958 Orders which have never been published. Perhaps you would say whether you agree with this view.
I am sending a copy of this letter and of its enclosures to Clayton in the Sea Transport Branch of the Board of Trade (with whom we have had recent correspondence on this subject) with the request that he will let us know if that Department have any comments to make on the course of action which we propose to adopt.
Unless you or Clayton hold a contrary view, we do not pro- pose to refer the draft Order to any other Departments; but once we have cleared our proposals with your respective Depart- ments we intend to send a copy of the draft Order to the Governor of Hong Kong for any comments that he may wish to make. Thereafter, assuming that all goes well, we would put the matter to higher authority here with a view to a submission to the Privy Council for the making of the new Order.
J. M. Stewart, Esq.,
DS11,
(A. W. Gaminara)
Ministry of Defence,
Whitehall,
London, S.W.1.
Notes. 21769
GL
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