EX-SULTAN’S ESTATES

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 December 1937, Page 9

EX-SULTAN’S ESTATES

VERDICT FOR HEIRS. A legal decision was given in a test case concerning vast, estates in Palestine, Iraq and Cyprus, formerly belonging to Abdul Hamid, the late Sultan of Turkey—the notorious Abdul the Damned. Included in the estates are the entire rich Mosul oilfields. The Sultan’s rule extended over Palestine until Turkey’s defeat in the war and the creation of the mandated territory. His heirs now seek to recover the Sultan’s State domains, running to 250,000 acres and, in addition, properties in Cyprus and Iraq. Tho Palestine Government, against whom the suit is brought, hold that the Sultan’s rights were extinguished by law.

The test case in which a decision was given began in the Jaffa Land Court last May, when the heirs claimed from the Palestine Government lands of an acreage of 1350, at Mullraka, a village near Gaza. The Court, consisting of a British presiding judge, Mr. P. E. F. Cressal, and an Arab, Aziz Bey Daudi, found that the onus was on the Palestine Government to prove its title to the property. As the judges did not agree whether tho onus had been discharged, judgment was' entered in favour of the heirs.

These include 14 princesses. Unless the judgment is reversed on appeal, claims will be entered in respect of the other property. “Abdul the Damned” —the Sultan Abdul Hamid —whose palaces are seraglios on the shores of the Bosphorus were famous for their lavish appointments, was born in 1842, and died in 1918. He ruled over the Ottoman Empire from 1876 until his deposition in 1909.