Pseudo-British Ships Instructions which were sent out this week to
all British consular officers to make it more difficult for foreign ships to obtain British registration should check what has long been an anomaly and something of a scandal. Provided that one of the owners of a ship, however much of a sleeping partner he be, is a British subject possessing offices in British territory, that ship may be registered as British property, although all the other owners and the crew may be foreign and she may never visit a British port. Greek owners in particular have a bad reputation for buying up old ships, keeping them on the British registry, manning them with foreign crews, and yet evading the British regulations. Above all, such ships can and do claim British naval protection. The Navy has enough work to do as it is in the Mediterranean without being called on to protect ships, which, though they fly the Red Ensign, have no genuine ties with this country. A tightening-up of the Board of Trade regulations would probably result in a number of undesirable owners having their ships struck off the British registry, a measure which British seamen would unfeignedly welcome.
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