235604-1937-Merchant-Shipping-Spanish-Frontiers-Observation-Act-1937 — Page 2

480

Provision as to

observing officers. 1 Edw. 8.

& 1 Geo. 6. c. 1.

THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, JUNE 4, 1937.

NOW, THEREFORE, be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1.--(1) No ship to which the Merchant Shipping (Carriage of Munitions to Spain) Act, 1936 (hereafter in this Act referred to as "the Act of 1936') applies and which is bound to a port or place in Spanish territory shall enter any waters adjacent to Spanish territory unless she has first proceeded to the prescribed place and there embarked such observing officers as may be deputed in that behalf by the administrator at that place:

Provided that

(a) a ship shall not be deemed to have contravened the foregoing provisions of this subsection by reason only that she has been compelled to enter waters adjacent to Spanish territory, either in order to reach the prescribed place, or by stress of weather or any other circumstance which neither the master nor the owner of the ship could have prevented or forestalled; and

(b) there may, by agreement between the master or owner of any ship and the chief administrator or the administrator at the prescribed place, be substituted for the prescribed place, in relation to that ship while on the voyage on which she is then engaged, such other place as may be so agreed; and

(c) the administrator at the prescribed place may, if it appears to him that he has for the time being an insufficient number of observing officers available for embarkation on any ship, exempt that ship from the provisions of this sub- section while on the voyage on which she is then engaged.

(2) Any observing officers so embarked on any such ship shall be entitled to remain on board the ship until dis- embarked in the manner provided in the next following subsection.

(3) When any ship to which the Act of 1936 applies, having observing officers on board in pursuance of this Act, leaves a port or place in Spanish territory bound to any port or place not in Spanish territory, she shall proceed to the prescribed place, taking the shortest available route thereto unless otherwise agreed between the master or owner of the ship and the administrator who deputed the observing officers on board the ship, and shall there disembark the said officers :

Provided that the said administrator may substitute another place for the prescribed place, so, however, that, without the consent of the master or owner of the ship, no such substitution shall be made which would increase the length of the ship's intended voyage by more than fifty sea miles.