SECTION C.
RETARATIONS CLAIMS.
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Shipowners who have lost ships at Japanese hands have a moral claim against such Japanese reparations, calculated in moncy, as become available to the Hong Kong Government, provided they have not first had their claims settled by underwriters or by the Hong Kong Government. The extent of such claims may be surmised from the lists registered with the Marine Department or the Reparations Claims Department, if one subtracts claims already dealt with in Section & and conceivably in Soction B. above, but it should be, recognised that neither list is likely to be completo. Subtracting the ships dealt with in Sections and B, the amount of private shipping claims against Japanese reparations so far registered are as follows:-
MARINE DEPARTMENT LIST
1.
231 vessels, worth $18,095,635 Less 31 vessels worth $10,158. 270 under Section A and 10 vessels worth $3,090,000 under Section B., i.e. 190 vessels worth $4,847,365.
MARINE DE ARTMENT
LIST 11.
43 vessels, worth $2,305,950, Loss 2 vessels worth $2,000,000 under Section and 1 vessel worth $20,000 under Section B., 1.c. 40 vessels worth $105,950.
RETARATION CLAIMS DN. LIST.
$5,871,00
No deductions for Sections L or B.
Total Private Roparations Claims $10,824,317.
These figures do not, however, represent the total of Hong Kong's Shipping Claims against Japanese roparations, as the Government is entitled to add its claim. That claim will consist of any compensation which it has had to pay to omers for losses under requisitions or otherwise as well as direct losses of craft, and under certain circumstances it might be fair and right to add also the amount of underwriters (of all kinds, including Government Departments) settlements for ships lost in connection with the Japanese war, while on the Hong Kong Rogistry.
It
The above relates to financial claims only, not to the amount of reparations taken in the form of shipping from Japan. should be noted that, if precedents elsewhere are followed, the amount of reparation takon from Japan in the form of shipping will bo allocated between claimant countries on the basis of each country's relative tonnage losses, not of its losses calculated in terms of monoy, The amount of shipping available from Japan fron reparations is likely to be very small indeed, so that for practical purposes Japanese reparations should be thought of, from the point of view of shipping, solely in terms of money.
Interest does not arise in the case of Reparation Claims, since settlement is in the nature of a bankrupt's dividend.
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