TNAG-0357-FCO40-393-Registration-of-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1972 — Page 39

breach the present uniform practice designed to maintain UK standards but

also because of timing. The nationality requirements in relation to UK

registered ships which derive from section 5 of the Aliens' Restriction

(Amendment) Act 1919 will be repealed and replaced by regulations to be

made under the Merchant Shipping Act 1970. We have yet to formulate

draft proposals as a basis for the making of such regulations and these will

have to be discussel with both sides of the shipping industry. It is contemplated

that such discussions will cover, inter alia, the question of the reciprocal

recognition of certificates of competency with our EEC partners. It is

expected to be difficult to formulate proposals acceptable to the officers'

associations who are likely to urge that certain key positions in UK registered

ships should be reserved to UK subjects. If any suggestion was made at

this stage that Hong Kong should be permitted to issue certificates of competency

to foreigners this would be likely to make progress more difficult when we

are ready to discuss with both sides of the shipping industry our proposals (which

have yet to be prepared) with regard to revised requirements on UK registered

ships, and in the EEC context, in the light of the intended repeal of section 5

of the Aliens' Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919.

The second course would also come under strong criticism by Merchant Navy

Officers' Associations in this country. It is recalled that the Merchant

Shipping Act 1967 was introduced mainly through sustained pressure from the

officers' associations for the statutory requirements for the carriage of

certificated officers in UK registered ships to be applicable not only to

such ships when going to sea from the UK but also when they put to sea

from places outside the UK. Before the Act was passed it was the practice of

some shipping companies to replace British certificated officers serving in

UK registered foreign-going ships by foreign certificated officers at near-

Continental porta before their ships continued their voyages. Even now the

Department is criticised by the officers' associations from time to time for

not seeking to apply the provisions of the 1967 Act more vigorously. To

approve an arrangement enabling the Hong Kong Government to issue certificates