A WAR ECHO

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 695, 22 November 1933, Page 7

A WAR ECHO

HUNGARIAN SHIPOWNERS CLAIM COMPEN S ATION FROM BRITAIN. CASE DISMISSED. London, October 13. Judgment was reserved yesterday by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in an appeal which involved the construction of the terms of the Treaty of Peace signed at Trianon. The appeal was from a judgment of Lord Merrivale in the Prize Court. Appellants were .th'e owners, master, and crew of the steamship Bath'ori. They claimed compensation for the sinking of the Bathori thirty miles from Yigo by H.M.S. Minerva. At the outbreak of the war the Bathori, ' whose owners were registered at Fiurne, then in Hurigary, flew th'e Austro-Hungarian mercantile marine flag. On August 29, 1914, the French Government gave the master of the Bathori a safe conduct authorising the vessel to go direct to Vigo, Spain, in ballast. After she had been sunk, near Yigo, the British Government .admitted that th'e sinking was due to a misunderstanding, and stated that the question of pecuniary liability would be eonsidered on the resumption of friendly relations with Hungary. When ultimately the owners of the Bathori put forward their elaim for compensation they were met by the defence that their claim was barred by the terms of the Treaty of Trianon. One of those terms stated that no claim 01* action should be made against any Allied or Associated Power hy Hungary or by any Hungarian national or by any national of the former Kingdom of Hungary in respect of any act during the war. Lord Merrivale had held that the Bathori was a Hungarian ship within the meaning of the Trianon Teraty, and that the Owners were at all material times nationals. of the former Kingdom of Hungary. He therefore dismissed the claim to compensation, and this decision was now appealed against.