TNAG-0358-FCO40-394-Registration-of-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1972 — Page 141

(iii) that items of safety equipment in ships should

be approved by Hong Kong marine surveyors

rather than, as now happens, by the UK.

4.

The Hong Kong Government's proposals were similar

to (i) and (iii) but on (ii) they took the view that the

master should continue to be British and that foreign

officers would be accepted in the other positions only

if they possessed certificates of competency agreed with

the DTI as equivalent to British certificates.

5. In the case of (iii) (approval of safety equipment)

we propose to enter into discussions with the Hong Kong

Government with a view to agreeing that in fields where

Hong Kong is equipped to do so it should be empowered to

accept equipment as satisfying regulations for UK ships;

this will take some time but we will move as quickly as

circumstances permit.

6. The manning and registration proposals, however,

present much more of a problem and there are the

following substantial arguments against moving as far

as suggested even by the Hong Kong Government:

(i)

At present most Commonwealth Governments accept

one another's certificates: if Hong Kong were

formally to accept foreign certificates this

would undermine the system, even if it could

be accommodated within the existing Commonwealth

Shipping Agreement, which requires members'

registration requirements to be similar.

/(ii) If