LEGAL DOLDRUMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 282, 29 November 1938, Page 5

LEGAL DOLDRUMS.

FORGOTTEN FAMILIES. SPANISH WIVES AND SHIPS. ANOTHER ENGLISH WINTER. (Si>ocinl—Ry Air Mail.) LONDON, November 2. On the guarded decks of three arrested ships which have lain chained together for more than a year in a backwater of India Docks, London. Spanish families are carrying on the life <>f a forgotten colony. The families, members of the crew, two women, and several children, arc held as securely as the ships in legal doldrums. The ship?. Igotz-Mendi (4048 tons), Alu-Mcndi (3:T>O tons) and ArautzazuMendi ((i<l4o tons), all of Bilbao, were placed under arrest by the Admiralty Marshal pending- settlement of an ownership dispute. They are lashed together, and getting rusty. The Court of Appeal this week confirmed the setting aside of the Spanish Government's writ for possession of the Arant/.azu-Mendi on tlie ground that tho Insurgent Government, which requisitioned the vessel, is immune from legal process in the British Courts. Leave was given to appeal to the House of Lords. While this decision was being made, the two Kpani«h women who, like their menfolk, have not troubled to learn English during their enforced stay in London, went shopping in Limchousc and : Barking. One is a steward's wife and the other eighteen-year-old daughter of a steward. Officialdom tried to ban a reporter from learning the secrets of this strange colony. The Port of London Authority refused a permit t,> enter the docks without the sanction of the ship's brokers. The brokers refused permission, an official saying: "We don't want any one going round questioning these people." Their Secrets. The Admiralty Marshal, in his office at the Law Courts, rang up the liOgal Department of the Foreign Office when asked for a pass. Ho said: "I am sorrv I caiui.it give you a pass. The lea.-t said about these ships the lietter. We do not want to give the matter any publicity." On the gangway of each of the ships is the notice: "No Allowance. Only on Business. Prohibit Entrap." A ship's keeper, appointed by the Admiralty, patrols the decks. He; turns away all visitors, refers all questions to the Admiralty. The two women who are left go ashore to buy their food imd return to cook it in the galleys. Wives of two of the captains came on a visit from Spain, but soon went home again. The children have been sent to local schools. One little dsirk-eyed boy has mastered English well enough to say, "No. T do not like it. here. It is so col.!. I wish T was home."

Most of tlie Spaniard* spend all clay in tlic ships. They lmvc one weekly treat. Each Friday they put on their best clothe* nnd so to a cinema in the Commercial Road.

With another winter liere the forgotten families shivered nn<\ thought of sunny Spain wlion they hoard that they will not be out of the doldrums until the House of Lords' appeal has Leon derided. (