TNAG-0323-FCO40-359-Legislation-for-merchant-shipping-registered-in-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 31

PROBLEM

Officer Manning

Under existing law

British registered

ships in Hong Kong

must have Masters,

Chief Officers and

Chief Engineers who

possess British

Certificates of

Crpetency. (2A & 3).

Buch officers are in

short supply and

Pao wishes to engage

icers of other

nationalities.

A ***

COMMENT AND FOSSIBLE SOLUTION

(a) A short term solution would be

exemptions of up to 1 year (4A)

granted by Director of Marine,

Hong Kong, under delegated

powers provided in the Merchant

Shipping (Aliens Employment)

(Attached

Ordinance.

Ordinances). The Hong Kong

Government are prepared to do

this (5A) and there is no legal

objection (6).

DEGREE OF ACCEPTABILITY

(a) Eost unlikely to be acceptable to

" WITH SOlution would be to

invoke Section 735(1) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (385)

in order to vary nationality

requirements. Legal advice (33)6 is that there would be no

objection to this solution.

(c) A long term solution whereby

Hong Kong established its own

register quite separate from

the central British Registry in

Cardiff. There is no legal

Kr Fao (7A). The main reason is the

lack of guarantee that a suitably

qualified British Officer could not

insist on replacing Mr Pao's nominee

whose exemption had expired outside

Hong Kong. In practice, news that

Hong Kong were allowing renewable

exceptions would soon become common

knowledge in maritime circles and

complaint from unemployed Masters or

Chief Officers holding Masters

Certificates if a foreign Kas ter were

to be re-exempted to their detriment

would inevitably reach the Unione and

might place Mr Pao in an "intolerable

predicament". (7A). Even an officer

with a valid exemption might be in

difficulty in British or

Commonwealth ports (46).

(b) Unlikely to be acceptable to

PNG Hong Kong or Mr Fap becaus

Hong Kong could not then remain

part of the British Register

4 C4

(40-85(a))

DTI see no

advantage to HMG in Hong Kong

remaining under overall British

registry but operating under

different or lower standards

(40-6(b)); For other reasons,

see (c) below.

(c) (i)

(6) objection (33) to this solution which would then enable Hong Kong.

to produce its own rules and meet

Mr Pao's requirements.

(ii)

Should

these rules not be acceptable to the

UK, Hong Kong registered ships would

to British ships in Britain or her

dependencies and, because

Commonwealth maritime countries

have adopted merchant shipping

legislation similar to UK,

benefits in Commonwealth countries

would also be denied them. In

foreign countries British Consular

service would not be available.

(iii)

whether or not this would

be acceptable to Mr Pao is

not known and depends on

how much he values benefits

available to British

registered ships.

Advantage to Hong Kong is

another unknown quantity

although DTI "see no material benefit" (40-67).

Since all Mr Pao's ships

Q

Kong the only financial

aavan tage from Mr Pao

would be a one-time

payment of about £98,000 for registration (35).

Hong Kong could, of

course, increase its

registration fees and

might perhaps attract

extra tonnage not at

present eligible for

registration ön BritisN

standards.

AE The effect on UK (10-07)

is likely to be to its

disadvantage mainly

because Britain would

be and would be seen by

the world's maritime

powers to be-creating

"flag of convenience"

ccnditions. Although

PIODULIGUE LIVIUS ALWALES

ships could fly a different flag.

the fact that Hong Kong can never

be independent means that, unless

the Governments of UK and Hong

Kong are to be wholly inconsistent,

rules for international

subjects must be the same or,

at least, this is what the world

would expect.