CO129-432 - Governor Sir May - 1916 [3-5] — Page 514

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Erandes (Winding up) Amendment Ordinance, 1914. The effect of

this provision would seem to be to postpone the payment of the above claims to the payment of liabilities which would ordinarily have been discharged by the local branches of the firms in question. In the case of Carlowitz and Company, accordingly, as the ultimate result of the winding up is still uncertain and indeed may remain so until after the war, the liquidators have

been instructed not to pay the claim.

3.

In the case of Jebsen and Company the above

provisions do not apply, because there are more than sufficient

funds to meet all the local liabilities. Other considerations,

however, present themselves. Two of them are referred to in the

letter from the liquidators to the Direction der Disconto Gesells- -chaft dated the 11th. March, 1916, of which I enclose a copy. I

may say that this letter was not referred to the Attorney General beforehand. The liquidators point out (a) that they are not in possession of the agreement of joint guarantee, and (b) that they

have no means of checking the correctness of the account. It will

be noticed also that the Hamburg firm is Jebsen and Jessen while

the Hongkong firm is Jebsen and Company, though I believe that the

partners in the two firms are the same. Another point is that

there is no means of knowing whether the liability in question may not have been discharged by Jebsen and Jessen to the Hamburg

branch of the Disconto Gesellschaft. A fourth consideration is

whether it is desirable to discharge out of funds in the hands of

the liquidators here the liability of a firm in Germany to a German bank. I suppose that the guiding consideration would be

whether the supervisor of the Direction der Disconto Gesellschaft,

London, wants the money for the purpose of discharging the liabili-

-ties of that branch of the bank to the Bank of England or other British creditors. If the money is so required it might perhaps

be paid to the Direction der Disconto Gesellschaft on an under-

-taking to refund if the claim has been paid elsewhere or if the

amount is found on arbitration to be incorrect. If this sum be...