HKK 21/6
Sir Hugh Norman-Walker KCMG OBE Colonial Secretary HONG KONG
L. ST
Hong nong Deparim t
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London S.W.1
16 September 1971
(18)
KIF
1. Since you wrote to me on 12 May about the registration of merchant shipping we have been into this question in detail with the DTI and our legal advisers and it may now be helpful to you to have our conclusions in amplification of our telegram No 435 of 11 June.
2.
First, we agree with you that the main stumbling-block in Mr Pao's view is what he has described as the rigid nationality requirement of officers and engineers serving in senior posts and the certification requirements. There is indeed a shortage of qualified seafaring officers and so far as the UK is concerned the DTI are at present engaged on the urgent task of reviewing current arrangements in relation to certification, manning and the training of ships' officers in the hope of laying the foundations for a more stable situation in the long term. They will be discussing this shortly with both sides of the shipping industry in the United Kingdom. In the course of such discussions they will be considering, among other things, the extent to which the present requirements as to the nationality of persons holding senior positions such as Master and Chief Engineer may need to be relaxed. This is a difficult and sensitive issue. The DTI feel that some flexibility as regards nationality will be necessary in any case they would have to look carefully at this in connection with our possible entry into the Common Market but that they may well run into strong resistance from representatives of the seafarers' organisations. In brief, they believe that some relaxation of the UK's present nationality rules in this context is probable but they doubt whether the changes will necessarily go as far as Mr Pao has suggested, namely complete relaxation.
-
3. As to the acceptance of foreign nationals who hold what Mr Pao has described as "equivalent national qualifications" it is extremely difficult to make a realistic comparison of the standards of training and competency as between the systems applied in different countries. Within the Commonwealth,
- 1.
CONFIDENTIAL
/with
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.