TNAG-0357-FCO40-393-Registration-of-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1972 — Page 154

CONFIDENTIAL

Hong Kong Ship Registry

At the risk of repetition may I please review the

recent approaches made by Mr. Pao to Mr. Royle, Hon. C.S. and myself.

2.

(a)

Very simply, he seeks:-

to liberalise the conditions of Hong Kong registry in respect of:-

(i) Officer manning;

(ii)

Standards of crew quarters;

(iii)

(iv)

Life saving and fire fighting equipment;

Hong Kong Government surveillance;

(b)

3.

4.

(a)

(b)

to create an autonomous Hong Kong registry independent of the United Kingdom and free of the present Commonwealth agreements.

His reasons are:

That Hong Kong would benefit by way of revenue and international prestige.

His operations would be simplified. He would prefer to sail his ships under the Hong Kong flag but he finds that our requirements are difficult to meet, particularly in respect of:-

(i)

officer manning (there is a shortage

of British qualified officers);

(ii) the detailed specifications of certain

materials and equipment required by British vessels.

The position extant

Mr. Pao operates 72 ships of which 12 are under the British flag, 53 under the Liberian flag, and 7 under the Panamanian flag.

5.

British requirements (including ships of Hong Kong registry) follow closely the standards of traditional maritime countries e.g., U.K., the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Holland, United States of America and France. The invariable rule is that officers must hold qualifications of the flag of registry and in most cases be nationals of the flag country.

CONFIDENTIAL

para. 6