Commonwealth Consolidated Regulations

TREATY OF PEACE REGULATIONS - REG 36

(1)

All property, rights and interests within the Territories of Papua and New Guinea belonging to German nationals at the date when the Treaty came into force (not being property rights or interests acquired under any general licence issued by or on behalf of the Commonwealth or any authority thereof), and the net proceeds of their sale, liquidation or other dealings therewith, are hereby charged:

(a)

firstly, with payment of the amounts due in respect of claims by British nationals with regard to their property, rights and interests, including companies and associations in which they are interested, in German territory, or debts owing to them by German nationals, and with payment of any compensation awarded by the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, or by an Arbitrator appointed by that Tribunal in pursuance of paragraph (e) of Article 297 of the Treaty, and with payment of claims growing out of acts committed by the German Government or by German authorities since the thirty-first day of July, and before the fourth day of August, One thousand nine hundred and fourteen; and

(b)

secondly, with payment of the amounts due in respect of claims by British nationals with regard to their property, rights and interests in the Territories of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, in so far as those claims are not otherwise satisfied:

Provided that any particular property, rights or interests so charged may at any time if the Governor-General thinks fit, be released from the charge so created.

(1A)

Where the Governor-General orders that any property, rights and interests be released from the charges specified in the last preceding subregulation, the order shall, where the property, rights and interests have been vested in the Custodian, have effect of revesting the property, rights and interests in the person to whom they belonged at the date of the coming into force of the Treaty or, where that person is dead or bankrupt, in his personal representative or the official assignee of his property, as the case may be.

(1AA)

Where an order is made by the Governor-General, either before or after the commencement of this subregulation, releasing, as an act of grace, any property, rights and interests from the charges specified in subregulation (1) of this regulation, the Governor-General may direct that the property, rights and interests released in pursuance of the order shall be subject to a charge, in favour of the Custodian of the amount of the payments, if any, made by way of sustenance allowance to the person whose property, rights and interests are released and thereupon such property, rights and interests shall, in the hands of any person in whom they revest by virtue of the order, be subject to that charge.

(1B)

The publication in the New Guinea Gazette of any order to which the preceding subregulation applies shall be conclusive evidence of the revesting under that subregulation of the property referred to in the order.

(1C)

Where property is, in pursuance of this regulation revested in any person that person shall not be entitled, as against the Commonwealth or the Administration of New Guinea or any authority of the Commonwealth or that Administration, to compensation or damages in respect of any action taken by the Commonwealth, the Administration or any such authority in respect of that property prior to its being revested in pursuance of this section.

(1D)

Notwithstanding anything contained in these Regulations where part only of any property, rights or interests is revested under this regulation in the person to whom the property, rights or interests belonged at the date of the coming into force of the Treaty, and the remainder thereof continues to be vested in the Custodian, the Custodian may sell the remainder to that person on such terms as the Custodian thinks fit:

Provided that the terms as to payment shall not in any case be more advantageous to the purchaser than those specified in paragraph (2) of regulation 50 of these Regulations, reading that paragraph as if:

(a)

in subparagraph (a) there were substituted for the words `forwarded with the tender by way of deposit' the words `paid on the execution of the contract of sale by the purchaser'; and

(b)

in subparagraph (b) there were substituted for the words `that his tender has been accepted' the words `of the execution of the contract of sale by the Custodian'.

(1E)

Where, prior to its release under this regulation any property, rights or interests have been liquidated, the release shall apply to the proceeds of the property, rights or interests so liquidated and the Custodian may pay to the person in whose favour the property, rights or interests were released the proceeds of the liquidation, or their equivalent as determined by the Minister, subject to all proper deductions and allowances.

(1F)

The Custodian may make payments under the last preceding subregulation out of moneys arising from the sale or liquidation of property under these Regulations.

(2)

Any person who, without the consent of the Custodian transfers, parts with, or otherwise deals in any property, right or interest so charged, shall be guilty of an offence against this Part of these Regulations.

(3)

Every person owning or having the control or management of any property right or interest so charged (including, where the property right or interest consists of shares, stocks, or other securities issued by a company municipal authority or other body or any right or interest therein), that company authority or body shall, unless particulars thereof have already been furnished to the Public Trustee in accordance with the Trading with the Enemy Act 1914-1916 , within one month after the date of the commencement of this Part of these Regulations, by notice in writing communicate the fact to the Custodian, and shall furnish the Custodian with such particulars in relation thereto as the Custodian requires, and if any person fails to do so he shall be guilty of an offence against this Part of these Regulations.

(4)

If any person called upon to pay any money or to transfer or otherwise to deal with any property rights or interests has reason to suspect that the same are subject to a charge under this regulation, he shall, before paying, transferring, or dealing with the property rights or interests, report the matter to the Custodian, and comply with any directions that the Custodian gives with respect thereto, and if any person fails to comply with the provisions of this subregulation he shall be guilty of an offence against this Part of these Regulations.

(5)

The Minister may by order vest in the Custodian any property rights and interests so charged, or the right to transfer the same, and for that purpose section 91 of the Trading with the Enemy Act 1914-1916 shall apply as if the property rights and interests were property belonging to an enemy or enemy subjects.

(6)

Where the property charged consists of inscribed or registered stock, shares, or other securities, any company, municipal authority, or other body by whom the securities were issued or are managed shall, on the application of the Custodian, enter the Custodian in the books in which the securities are inscribed or registered as the proprietor of the securities so charged, and the Custodian shall, subject to the approval of the Minister, have power to sell or otherwise deal with the securities as proprietor of which he is so registered or inscribed.

(7)

Where the property, right or interest vested in the Custodian by the Minister consists of land or any estate or interest in land, and a copy of the vesting order, certified under the hand of the Custodian, is lodged with the Registrar-General or Registrar of Titles, or other proper officer of the Territory in which the land is situated, he shall register it in the register and in the manner as nearly as may be in which dealings with land or any estate or interest therein are registered, and shall deal with and give effect to the notification as if it were a grant or conveyance or memorandum or instrument of transfer of the land or estate or interest therein to the Custodian duly executed under the laws in force in that Territory.