A KING’S RANSOM.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 296, 11 July 1929, Page 3

A KING’S RANSOM.

CLAIM BY VIENNA. . It would seem to be a far cry from 1194, when an immense ransom in marks of silver was paid down for the liberation of King Richard, Coeur de Lion, from Austrian imprisonment, to a dispute between the Government and the municipality of Vienna in 1928. But the question as to whether the Austrian Government is legally entitled of the English King is periodically the subject of hot disputes in Vienna (states a correspondent of The Times).

It appears that the money paid to Duke Leopold of Austria furnished funds with wh.ch the formidable wall i which defended the inner city of Vienna until the year 1857 was built. When the wall was demolished the Viennese Municipality, as trustee for I all public lands in the city, laid claim | to the strip of ground on which the j wall had stood. But the right of possession was disputed by the Imperial j Government, and the latter carried the day. The proceeds of the sale of this valuable land have since const tuted the City Extension Fund, out of which the Government have 'been able to build some of the finest public buildings now gracing the Ringstrasse, such as the Opera House, the | Natural History Museum, and Art j Gallery, and the new wing of the Hof- ! I burg, which alone cost mory than j 2,000,000 marks. I

The municipality has not yet succeeded in asserting its right to this fund, but periodically claims compensation for its loss, and is demanding a proper account of the disposal of the fund. This the Government refuses to give.