Stakes

Old Waria Syndicate Stakes A Claim in N. Guinea

THERE has been an extraordinary sequel to the Australian Government’s world-wide in vitation to anyone with old claims to property in former German New Guinea to submit particulars.

This was not an indication that such claims necessarily had hope of success. It meant only that the Government was seeking informa tion to assist the authorities in re building land and other titles, under the New Guinea Titles Restora tion Ordinance, 1951.

When Australia took over the Mandate from the League of Nations in 1920, all German-owned properties were alienated —or “ex propriated.” Australia took over the properties, and compensated the German owners by giving them orders on the German Government which, under the Peace Treaty, had undertaken to pay the Allies a huge sum as war damage compensation. In other words, Australia took the properties and gave Germany a credit note for same.

Thenceforward, the titles to these lands, etc., were based on the “Old German Ground Book,” or system of records compiled by the Germans between 1880 and 1914.

But disaster came with the Jap Invasion of 1942-45. The “Ground Book” was destroyed: and so when civil government was restored in 1946, and rehabilitation com menced, there was enormous con fusion. The Administration had to attack the weary, heart-breaking task of re-establishing the land titles: and it was in that connec tion that the Ordinance of 1951 was passed, and a world-wide search instituted for data.

FUS there came into the pic ture the descendants of a member of the famous old Waria Syndicate, well-known in tfew Guinea in “German time.”

Fo the amazement of Papua-New Guinea, they have lodged a formal ;laim to mining rights over 5,000 ;quare miles in ’ New Guinea, in cluding the famous Morobe Gold ield. The claim is based on a grant nade by the Imperial German Government to the Waria Syndicate n July, 1914. of a lease over 5,000 quare miles.

The Waria Syndicate was formed, letween 1912 and 1914, by Hein ich Rudolph Wahlen, well-known n New Guinea prior to World Var 1 as a pioneer planter and merchant. He was once called “the Fing of the Northwest Islands.”

Jthough now of advanced years, ie is still alive and alert in Ham

burg, and his letters —he has been a valued correspondent of the PIM in recent years—show his present lively interest in affairs. The Syn dicate comprised: Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen.

Julian Wahlen.

Max M. Warburg.

Herman Fliess.

F. Rosenstern and Co.

All were important financial men, residents of Hamburg. Banker Warburg probably was the wealthiest and most influential.

It would appear that, after the New Guinea expropriation move ments, the Waria Syndicate re mained dormant, and—so far as official Australia is concerned— completely forgotten.

THE Warburg family is Jewish and, when Hitler came to power, this was one of the powerful groups “Aryanised’ by the Nazis, in 1938. The family already had strong links with America, and, in 1938, it removed all its interests to New York. Max Warburg died in America in 1946, and is survived by- Mrs. Alice Warburg, his widow, now a naturalised American.

Frederick Marcus Warburg, a son, aged 55, born and educated in America, and a naturalised Swede.

He is a very wealthy banker.

Eric M. Warburg, a banker, and a naturalised American.

These three, with Ernest Spiegel berg (former German banker, closely associated in Germany with

Warburg, a naturalised American since 1941, and now a New York banker) have combined to deal with this Waria Syndicate matter.

They recently examined the records of the Waria Syndicate, and de cided that they, as heirs of Max Walburg, are entitled to 10 per cent, of anything which belongs to the Syndicate. Claims were pre

pared accordingly in 1952 in Ham burg and in New York, and were formally signed in Hamburg on September 5 and in New York on

September 8.

The claim, made on behalf of the three Warburgs named, and Spiegleberg, was lodged in Port Moresby in December, and will be heard there, in due course, by the

Commissioner of Titles, Mr, McCubbery.

The others members of the old Waria Syndicate do not appear in the matter—only the heirs and associates of Max Warburg.

WHEN the claim was lodged, some people refused to take it seriously—it belonged, they said, to the “German time before,” which had no legal standing after World War 1. But others point out that a group of New York bankers, of the wealth and influ ence of the Warburg family, would not lodge a claim like this unless the whole legal position had been very carefully examined and appraised.

It is difficult to estimate the value of the gold that has been taken out of the Morobe goldfield since World War 11. The Terri tory began exporting gold in a big way in 1927; within ten years, it was producing £2 million per annum; and after the war it soon regained big scale production. A total production of £40,000,000 might be a fair guess.

Dr. A. Spoehr assumed Director ship of the Bishop Museum, Hono lulu, in January, in succession to the late Sir Peter Buck. Dr.

Spoehr has been curator of Oceanic Ethnology at Chicago Natural History Museum.