DEBTS OF £312,000

Evening Star, Issue 20876, 20 August 1931, Page 12

DEBTS OF £312,000

DISCHARGE SUSPENDED Application was made at the London Bankruptcy Court lately to Mr Registrar Mellon for the discharge of tlie Marquis of ‘Winchester, company director, who was adjudged bankrupt on November 8 last. -Mr Ferrars Vyvyan, Official Receiver, stated that, according to the report of the trustees, the total unsecured debts probably amounted to £312,000. They expected that the assets would realise £7OO, which would be absorbed by costs and preferential claims. There could be no dividend for unsecured creditors. Lord Winchester, went on Mr Vyvyan, attributed his insolvency to his liability for the price of shares purchased by the Austin Friars Trust Ltd., and as guarantor of that company; to depreciation of shares in consequence of the actions of Clarence Hatry and his co-directors of the Austin Friars Trust; to depreciation of other shares ; and to interest on borrowed money. Of the unsecured indebtedness £B,OOO related to income tax and sur-tax and £8,360 to bills given in respect* to jeweller" supplied, insurance, and interest. In opposing the application, Mr Vyvyan submitted that Lord _ Winchester had brought on. or contributed to, his bankruptcy by rash and hazardous speculations. Mr W. J. Albery, one of the joint trustees in the bankruptcy, stated that he supported the opposition of the Official Receiver. The application was also opposed by the committee of inspection of creditors. The Registrar, in giving judgment, referred to “ the glamour of Hatry,” as a result of which Lord Winchester, by joining the Hatry companies, doubled the remuneration he was receiving from directorshios, which before 1926 amounted to £6.009 or £7,000 a year. Ho could not do less than suspend the discharge for twelve months.