COVERING CONFIDENTIAL
DIEN
ta o
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
FILE
17
21 May 1991
A Scutt Esq
Room P2075
Department of Transport
2 Marsham Street
London
HKC175/1
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
брочего Mr Scute on 14/6 and ancer fer a
(S
90/HNC175/4 (39
raply.
Dea Alan.
HONG KONG SHIPPING REGISTER: FLAGGING OBLIGATIONS
1. I attach copies of:
-
Hong Kong telno 3149 of 30 October 1990
Legal Advisers' (Mr Fifoot) minute to Mr Stone of 19 November 1990
2.
-
-
-
FCO telno 2213 to Hong Kong of 22 November 1990
Hong Kong telno 1010 of 3 April this year
3
(42)
90/HKC175/4 90/MKC 175/4/+3
Legal Advisers' (Miss Brooks) minute to me of 16 May
As you can see, a problem arises with the flagging obligations of ships on the new Hong Kong Shipping Register. The Hong Kong Merchant Shipping (Registration) Ordinance 1990 provides that the proper colours of a registered ship are the red ensign flown directly above the blue ensign with Hong Kong armorial bearings. Hong Kong have pointed out that, outside Hong Kong, these ships will be breaching their flagging obligations under the UK Merchant Shipping Act 1894. We have now agreed with Hong Kong that their repeal of Section 73 of the 1894 Act cannot cover ships on the new Hong Kong Register (which are British ships for the purpose of the 1894 Act) while they are outside the waters of Hong Kong. therefore need to take action in the UK to resolve this conflict.
3. Hong Kong telno 1010 sets out four possible solutions:
We
(a) An amendment to exclude Hong Kong from the application of Section 73 of the 1894 Act.
As you can see, neither we
nor Hong Kong favour this option.
TOMBCE
CC
COVERING CONFIDENTIAL
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