TNAG-0420-FCO40-466-Registration-of-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 160

CONFIDENTIAL

56/

Mr

wyfford

Sad Kosten

Mr Sty

PA

П

Goodfellow

18.01

HONG KONG REGISTER OF SHIPPING

1. I attach DTI's draft of a letter to the Prime Minister and

a memorandum to Hong Kong.

These do not need to be read in

detail. I understand that Mr Heseltine has approved the

submission and that it is likely to go forward to No 10 without

substantial change.

2.

Substantially, what the DTI are proposing is that Masters

of ships transferred to the Hong Kong register must remain

British; that there should be modified requirements for the

second in command (First Officers); and that quite substantial

changes should be accepted for all the other officers. At the

same time they are proposing the secondment of DTI surveyors to

Hong Kong to help with the changeover to the new register.

3. The manning changes go a long way to meet Mr Y K Pao.

There is a reasonable chance that they will be acceptable.

I think they are anyway close to the DTI's last offer. I have

advised the DTI that in proposing the secondment of surveyors

to Hong Kong they should be particularly careful to stress the

desire to help and to play down the negative element of the

proposal which is to provide an answer to those who claim that

standards will be allowed to fall. Otherwise we shall get an

offended reaction from Hong Kong. I have therefore suggested that the order of the "advantages of the proposal", which are

set out in the draft memorandum for Hong Kong, should be

reversed.

CONFIDENTIAL

14.