with and to hold the Master responsible for failure to do so. It also enables the Government to summon the Master to a court of inquiry and to deal with his certificate should the occasion arise, this being more important in the case of the Master than other officers.
4. Judging from Mr Pao's recent comments it seems doubtful whether he would consider the changes advocated under (a) to (d) in para- Graph 3
assuming we were prepared to concede these after consulta- tion with the Hong Kong Government as being sufficient to persuade him to transfer more of his ships to Hong Kong. Indeed even if we were to go further and permit aliens to sit Hong Kong examinations at all levels as proposed by Mr Pao, it seems doubtful whether the considerable number of officers at present employed on his ships who hold certificates issued by countries such as Taiwan, Chinese People's Republic and South Korea would in fact sit for examinations in Hong Kong, in order to obtain a Hong Kong certificate. Since Mr Pao considers his ships are already safely manned it is more than likely that he would bring very strong pressure to bear on the Hong Kong Government also to accept those certificates.
5. Mr Pao maintains that the safety record of his company's ships is such as to justify action of this kind, We could only check this be a laborious examination of the casualty information issued in Lloyd's daily list of casualties over a long period. The fact remains, however, that the casualty record of "flag of convenience" countries compares unfavourably with that of the UK and, without doubt, the adoption of the practice of accepting certificates such as those issued by Taiwan, Chinese People's Republic and South Korea would be regarded as a lowering of standards.
6. In considering this matter further with the Hong Kong Government it will be necessary to guard against a situation arising in which UK shipowners who also experience difficulty in obtaining sufficient UK certificated officers for their ships might want to transfer them to the Hong Kong register. This would have to be prevented by ensuring that registration on the Hong Kong register is strictly confined to bona fide Hong Kong residents and companies - a descrip- tion which would need to be carefully defined. Unless this were done, there would be a storm of protest from the UK seafarers' organisations who would see the transfer of ships from the UK to the Hong Kong register as a serious loss of job opportunity for their bers. However, if adequate safeguards can be introduced we could explain to those organisations the need to take action along these lines because of the special situation in that territory, stressing that not only would there be no drift from the UK to the Hong Kong register but also that there would be an appreciable increase in the ships on the Hong Kong register. Although such chins would be able to employ foreign certificated officers at all Novels other than Master, the fact that there would be more ships sould result in more not less job opportunities for British officers.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.