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Hokitika Guardian, 9 February 1925, Page 4

LAIV COURTS MIXTURE. LONDON, December 9

In Mr Justice Eowlatt’s court of the King’s Bench Division yesterday was one of the most cosmopolitan gatherings that the Law Courts have probably seen for some time

People of many nationalities, including Armenians, Turks, Greeks, CV'.echofilovakians, Frenchmen, and Italians sat following as best they could the long-drawn-out Smyrna fire case, to give evidence at which many of them have'travelled from various parts of Asia \M inor. The case, the American Tobacco Co. v. the—Guardian Assurance Co., concerns the question of the liability of insurance companies to pay for the destruction of property in the fire which occurred at Smyrna after the Turkish occupation in 1922. It has already lasted seven days, and is expected to continue till the end of the present law sittings, December 20. Among the 30 witnesses are: The chief of the Turkish staff at Sinvrna at the time of the fire.

Turkish a-pd Greek officers. British, American. Italian, and French residents and merchants at Smyrna. Several late Greek residents of Smyrna.

So far the evidence lias been given in six different languages and eight interpreters have been employed. Although the case has largely become a question of religion and nationalities—the Greeks and Aremenians accusing the Turks of causing the fire to hide atrocities—the witnesses on both sides get on quite well together in court.