Financial Controls
Foreign exchange proceeds must be surrendered to the Bank of Greece.
Shipping Controls
Effective March 17, 1953, the Greek Government prohibited Greek flag vessels from calling at Communist ports in China and North Korea. This was accomplished by the Greek Council of Ministers Act No. 204 of March 17, which was enacted into law by the Greek Parliament on May 7. Violators are punishable under the provisions of law No. 2317 of 1953, published in Greek Government Gazette No. 61, dated March 17.
The Greek foreign investment law provides that foreign vessels transferred to the Greek flag may only be resold to countries named in the “letter of approval”. This listing has not included Soviet bloc countries. With only minor exceptions, ships already under the Greek flag may not be resold to other countries.
Current bunkering controls require licensing both by the Bank of Greece and the customs authorities. Ship repair controls require licensing by the customs authorities. In neither case is the licensing control based on the nationality of the vessel to be serviced nor, in the latter case, the type of materials used for repair or installed.
[HONG KONG]
While there has been no appreciable change in the already extensive security controls maintained by the Hong Kong Government on exports to Communist China and the Soviet bloc, there were changes in the laws and legal processes under which these controls are enforced. The Emergency (Importation and Exportation Ordinance) (amendment) Regulations, 1953, were promulgated July 10, 1953, in order to prevent evasions of export and import controls. Eighteen modifications were made by these Emergency Regulations. Among them were:
1. It was made an offence to transfer an export permit with intent to deceive or to allow any other person to use a permit with intent to deceive.