TNAG-0510-FCO40-575-Registration-of-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 20

LAST

Rif

REF.

1

•

布政司署

香港下亞畢道

CONFIDENTIAL

* Our Ref.: CR 14/5061/70 III

* YOur Ref.:

(14)

Dear Andrew,"

(45)

RECEIVED REGISTRY No.52

24 JUL1974

INICK/21/2

39

COLONIAL SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

11th June 1974

Hong Kong Shipping Register

AR Sheard was writter To Dot

PA

See record of the Governors 12 Goodfellow meeting with the Archer & my subs letter to or Archer

Aes

24/6

You may have wondered what we have been doing

here on the above subject following the receipt of copies the DOT Team's Report. What has happened is that, although we have studied the Report in detail and have consulted Hong Kong shipowners (largely on the basis of the summary in your telegram No 154 of 8th February), their reaction to the changed proposals has been so unenthusiastic that we felt it better to write rather than convey the position by telegram.

2.

The shipowners, who as you know were not exactly falling over backwards to embrace the previous Heads of Agreement, regard the revised proposals as a significant backward step from the Heads of Agreement in respect of both manning requirements and safety equipment. They consider that, if adopted, they would result in a separate Hong Kong Register being established in name only, with the substance being little different from the present practice whereby Hong Kong is simply another British port of registry. This, they feel, would not go any distance in solving the difficulties and problems they have in registering their ships in Hong Kong and would not result in many (if any) more ships being registered here, or diverted from flags of convenience, than under present arrangements.

3.

As regards manning, the proposals for special written examinations for officers in mid-career below the level of Master, to be preceded by a full-time course, seem to the shipowners not only to go back on the Heads of Agreement but to be contrary to the results of interviews conducted by the DOT team when they were in Hong Kong. During that time the team interviewed 43 officers below the level of Master and pronounced 24 of them to be qualified. And they stated in conversation that they were agreeably surprised with the standards of officers tested. (Incidentally conducting examinations in Chinese would not be of much help as we have no examiners who could mark the papers).

C.S. 41A

A.C. Stuart, Esq,

Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Department,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

King Charles St,

London, SW1A 2AH, England.