Conclusion
7. It is suggested that Mr Pao should be asked whether relaxations in the manning requirements of the kind proposed by the Hong Kong Government as at (a) to (d) of paragraph 3 would be likely to lead hin and other Hong Kong shipowners to transfer more of their ships to a separate Hong Kong register.
8.
If Mr Pao's reply should indicate that such changes would be unlikely to cause him to transfer more of his ships to the Hong Zong register, this would have an important bearing on our further consultations with the Hong Kong Government. In particular the Hong Kong Government would need to consider carefully whether the setting up of a separate register linked to their proposals on Hanning night subsequently lead to new pressures from Mr Pao and others, which might then be more difficult to resist, to lower stan- dards of qualifications for certificated officers on Hong Kong registered ships. This point was touched on in the recent note on this subject which Sir Alec Douglas-Home addressed to the Prime Minister.
V J Madigan
IAR 4
3 December 1972
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