SIR,
No. 208.
TRINIDAD.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. (Confidential.)
Downing Street, 12th October, 1917.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 14th August, and to confirm my telegram of the 9th Octobert relative to the realization of the mortgage debts of Messrs. Neubauer & Company.
2. It is, of course, desirable that these mortgages should be disposed of before the conclusion of the treaty of peace, which might require that emergency legis- lation, and action taken under it, should be cancelled as from the date of signature of the treaty or some date shortly thereafter.
3. It is, of course, impossible to forecast what provisions the treaty of peace will make on this subject. I am, however, advised that under the Trinidad ordinances, as they now stand, compromise agreements entered into with the mortgagors by the Liquidating Committee would be preserved, so long as the relevant legislation remained in force, as would also the Liquidating Committee's power of sale, as modified by any compromise which might be agreed to.
4. I observe from paragraph 3 of your despatch that the mortgagors dispute their liability to pay interest accruing during the interval between the outbreak of war and the order to wind up the enemy business, on the ground that mortgage interest does not run in favour of an enemy. I am advised, however, that unless the mortgagee was a legal enemy the interest would be payable to him as it accrued, whilst if he were a legal enemy the interest would be payable to the Public Custodian as from the outbreak of war under sub-section (1) of section 4 of the Ordinance No. 19 of 1916.
I luve, &c.,
* No. 205.
† No. 207.
WALTER H. LONG.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O.
Reference :-
885/25
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