British Marine Equipment Manufacturers Association should be consulted for his views before drawing this conclusion. Items of navigation equipment and pumps were areas where there might be opportunities for British manufacturers. Captain Anderson also appeared to have accepted the view that it would be inconvenient for Japanese shipbuilders to order much of their equipment from Britain. He likened the insistence of a foreign ship owner on the use of foreign equipment to the insistence of a Ford car purchaser on the installation of door handles from a different make of car. One area however where the Japanese would have an advantage following the establishment of a Hong Kong Register, Captain Anderson conceded, would be increased competitive strength in third country markets. Since HMG would be taking the initiative in giving approval to Japanese equipment this would enhance the reputation of Japanese equipment and thereby enable them to displace British goods in third country markets. A typical case where this might be true was that of inflatable rafts where we have been pioneers.
4.
Captain Anderson also conceded that the establishment of a Hong Kong Register could bring advantages to NK, the Japanese classification society, at the expense of Lloyds Register. At present HMG does not recognise NK for the purpose of classification of ships for the British Register nor does the Japanese Government recognise Lloyds for the classification of ships for the Japanese Register. However, in the UK much of the testing of safety equipment is delegated to Пloyds. If type approval were to be given for Japanese manufactured goods there would be pressure on HMG to delegate to NK part of the testing. This could eventually lead to the recognition of NK. We pointed out that this ought only to be done on a reciprocal basis.
5. Nothing in the above conflicts with the arguments deployed in my letter of 27 November. There was however one important point which Captain Anderson explained which differed from our previous understanding of the situation. Hitherto we had understood that the DTI team had been given a brief to consider whether Japanese testing procedure was sufficiently rigorous to justify granting automatic approval for the acceptance of Japanese marine equipment on ships for the Hong Kong Register. According to Captain Anderson this is not case. Rather the DTI intend that approval should be given by the DTI to equipment which would be tested here in Japan. This obviously makes it difficult to ask for reciprocal terms. It does not however alter the substance of the advantages to be conferred on the Japanese since HMG will be taking the initiative in giving type approval to Japanese manufactured equipment.
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Rich and lunges Wa 130n
R Burges Watson
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