CONFIDENTIAL
Lord Bridges
Prime Minister's Office
10 Downing Stroet
London SW1
REF.
LAST
September 1973
PA
91
6-17
TONG KONG REGISTER OF SHIPPING
Thank you for your letter of 29 August.
The Minister's latest move to resolve the matter was well received in Hong Kong and their Director of Marine was hero last week when we moved close to an agreement in principle on the general conditions which would apply to a separato Hong Kong Regiater. It was clear, however, that the Hong Kong Administra- tion known very little about the standards of technical competence and apokon English or non-British officers on Hong Kong ship- owners' ships and of arrangements for type testing equipment in Japanese shipyards. With this in mind they have asked that wo should send out a small team of murine surveyors to interview some of the officers in question, to visit Japanese shipyards and then to work out in detail conditions applying to the separato Register with a view to reaching final agreement in several months time. Bearing in mind that a Hong Kong Ordinance has to be prepared and their force of surveyors has to be expanded, this would not in practice mean any greater delay in getting the new Register into operation than has been.envisaged all along.
13,
There is, however, one difficulty. In the course of our lengthy negotiations with Hong Kong various different figures have been given at different times as to the tonnage which might be brought on to a separate Hong Kong Reginter but no commitment has yet been mode by any of the Hong Kong shipowners. They are now saying that they would like to meet our team of surveyors and know more of the detailed conditiong attaching to the Register before making any such commitment. My Minister does not think that this is good enough bearing in mind the considerable trouble we have gone to and are proposing to go to in the future to have a new Register oot up while maintaining high standards and he is arranging to meet the Governor (who is at present in Scotland) next week to
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