A Captain reports their Lead Flight Attendant advised him they could not locate the survival loop lanyards at each cabin door slide/raft position as described in their Flight Attendant Manual Pre-flight Checklist. Although Mechanic verified the lanyards were present; they were still not visible when the doors were closed. Pilot raises concern about possibly not being in compliance.

Narrative

During the pre-flight; the Lead Flight Attendant advised me that they could not locate the lanyard at each door as described in their Flight Attendant Manual. Since this was an overwater equipped aircraft; we sent in a maintenance report and asked for local Maintenance to come out. In order to locate the lanyards; the Mechanic had to open each of the doors and literally hang out of the aircraft to search underneath the slide/raft package. Upon locating the lanyards; he cleared the defect and subsequently sent a new Maintenance Release. However; the Pre-flight Checklist in the Flight Attendant Manual indicates that the lanyards should be visible; which was not the case; even after maintenance action. Although we chose to accept local Maintenance's actions; in light of the fact that we were not flying over long distances of water; I feel that this aircraft was not actually in compliance with the expectations of the FAA. The purpose of the lanyard is to attach the survival kit to the slide/raft in preparation for a ditching. This would require that the lanyard be accessible from inside the airplane with the doors closed to ensure the attachment of the survival kit. Since the only way to access the lanyard on this airplane was to open the door; there is no way that the survival kit could be attached for a ditching. I bring this situation up because I believe that if this aircraft were to be operated in an actual overwater operation; we would not be in compliance with the FARs; but more importantly; we would be operating in an unsafe manner. I further believe that our Air Carrier should audit our entire fleet of overwater A320s for similar instances of lanyard condition in the event that this is not an isolated occurrence. We might save ourselves a lot of grief by doing so and spare us an FAA action; or worse; the possibility of operating in an unsafe manner.