they are notoriously difficult to resolve. Although heirs to estates can claim in respect of debts, there seems no reason why heirs should be able to claim in respect of pensions which can be regarded as personal to the beneficiary. Those who have already received ex gratia pension payments from HMG should be allowed to claim the difference between ex gratia payments and entitlement if they can establish what the latter is, as their claim against the Fund is unlikely to be appreciable.
Claimants should be required to show that they had the appropriate British nationality both at the time of loss and at the time of claim. A similar provision in the case of the 1982 Czechoslovakia distribution was heavily criticised by certain ex-servicemen who were not British nationals at the time of original loss, but who had since then acquired British nationality; but the Czech Order was never amended. We are not aware of specific persons that would be in similar difficulty in the case of China, and therefore do not see any reason to change our usual nationality requirements.
The Minister's views are invited.
3.
Finally the Minister should be aware that we have investigated carefully whether more specific guidance on exchange rates could be inserted into the Order. We concluded this was not possible. There was no unified currency throughout China until 1959 and at the time of the proclamation of the Chinese People's Republic in October 1949 British owned companies were valuing their assets in a variety of currencies including gold taels. Moreover the seizure of British assets did not take place on a specific date, but was accomplished gradually throughout the early 1950s as one company after another took the decision to withdraw following harassment. The only sensible solution has been to allow the FCC a wide discretion on valuation and use of exchange rates in respect of property claims in view of the variety of circumstances in particular cases.
Even Thoma
Thomas
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