TNAG-0420-FCO40-466-Registration-of-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 169

DRAFT MINUTE FROM MINISTER (A & S) TO PRIME MINISTER

HONG KONG REGISTRY

We have just had the Hong Kong Government's comments

to the Consultative Document sent to them on 20 March.

Their initial reaction, after consulting local ship-

owners, is that if only the proposals agreed by the

UK so far were put into effect this would provide only

a limited incentive to shipowners to transfer or

register new tonnage in Hong Kong. They consider that

the need to refer safety equipment and crew accommoda-

tion questions to London would be "time-consuming and

possibly impracticable", and that the manning

concessions so far acceptable to us would go little of

the way to ease the shortage of British-qualified

officers.

On the other hand if "a much larger measure

of agreement" could be reached, the Hong Kong Government

believes that by 1975 or so a separate register could

contain some 330 ships totalling 10.9 gross tons. The

Hong Kong Government continues to emphasise its

determination that no new arrangements should even

appear to give Hong Kong the appearance of a flag of

convenience,

This last point reflects our main concern and could

provide the basis for a new proposal which may be

acceptable both to Hong Kong and more widely. This

would involve secondment to Hong Kong of a number

/of DTI