Compensation
p. 146 · Read in the full issue
The Claim That
Will Not Die
Waria Syndicate Seeks Compensation
mHE claim of the Wari) J. Syndicate, in respect of certal land and mining rights in th Waria section of New Guinea, stij is being advanced before the Aus tralian Government, reports Ml Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen, I Hamburg.
Mr. Wahlen was a merchant i German New Guinea prior to 191 j and was instrumental in gettid the grant for the Syndicate froi the German Government. He ha been pressing that claim since tti end of World War I.
The major share of the Syndics! appears to be held by Swedia nationals; and the claim has beq submitted, in Canberra, t both the Swedish and the Germa Ministers.
Mr. Wahlen says that negotiation had reached a certain stage,] few months ago, when they we] interrupted by the death of M Erfass, who was handling tl matter.
The Commissioner of Titles I New Guinea decided, in 1955 1 1956, that any rights that tl Waria Syndicate may ha\ possessed were obliterated by tl Mining Ordinance of 1922, No. 1 but the Syndicate replied that the) had been no reference to th Ordinance in the reply given I the Australian Government on Ju3 21, 1938, to the notes submitted I Germany and Sweden.
The Syndicate now admits tlj the Australian Government hi authority to expropriate Gerim property in New Guinea, afj World War I; taut it points o that compensation must be ps for that property; and this beconj a matter of importance because t major share in the Syndicate held by Swedish nationals. (The compensation allowed i German property-owners in N Guinea after World War I was r paid in cash, but was credited the German Government, as parti the war damage which Germa had to pay; and the Germ
Government was expected j
compensate its own nation accordingly. This, of course, mes that in most cases the New Gun German nationals lost everyth!
But Swedish nationals, not havi been in the war, were probably: a different category).
Mr. Wahlen says that the mat is again being brought before j Australian Government by Governments of Sweden a Germany.