I have moved a long way to meet your views and those of
the Hong Kong shipowners while maintaining proper
safeguards. They should now decide whether they are
prepared to co-operate on the basis of the conditions
set out in my telegram of 21 June without the prospect
of further easement. Some of the details need further
discussion, for example, secondments of our surveyors
and access to the Hong Kong register on which representa-
tives of UK shipowners have expressed the view that they
should be allowed access, though I am very doubtful
about this. If the broad lines of agreement are acceptable
and there is the prospect of a worth-while increase in
tonnage on the Hong Kong register, we would pursue
discussions with you at official level and consider
sending a small advance party of surveyors out to
Hong Kong by the end of the year to gain experience and
to help in making detailed arrangements. Their instructions
would be to work with your Director of Marine to make the
new arrangements operate smoothly while ensuring that
acceptable standards are maintained in terms of qualifica-
tions of officers, safety equipment and crew accommodation.
One detail that needs clarification is the nationality
and qualifications of radio officers on which, if we are
to proceed, we should like to have as soon as possible
your proposals for discussion with the union concerned.
The arrangements would, of course, be reviewed after they
have been operated for a trial period by which time we
hopw that our discussions with EEC countries would have
yielded results but it should not be assumed that this
/would necessarily
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.