Claim for £300,000,000

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7201, 26 April 1930, Page 10

Claim for £300,000,000

STORY, which reads like pages from the Arabian Nights, of a five years’ 'fight by the 13 children and nine surviving widows of

Abdul the Damned, the, notorious Sultan of Tprkey,-who was deposed in 1909, for a share of,his £300,000,000 estate has been revealed by the “Daily Mail.” Greece is reported to be prepared to pay them £10,000,000, and they now hope to get £200,000,000 from Mesopotamia. The claimants are:

Prince Selim, Prince Ahmed and Princess Zelie, and their mother Bedrifelek, :Abdul’s favourite wife; , Prince Abdul Kadir and Princess Naimee, the children of his second favourite, Bidar, who is dead; Princess ■•Naile, Prince Nourreddin, Princess Aiche, Prince Abid, Princess Refie, Princess Chadie and Prince Ardurrahim; Fatima, Behidje, Mouchfika, Nadjie, Sazighiar, Emsalinour, and Peiveste, the Sultan’s other wives and their respective mothers; and Prince Bourhanneddin and his mother, the tenth of the Sultan’s wives.

The Sultan was reputed to be the richest man in the world. He reigned 33 years as an all-powerful Oriental despot, and died in prison in 1918. In the course of his long reign over the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid acquired by “gifts” and other means from his “devoted subjects” immense wealth and great estates. Confiscated Estates When he was deposed by the Young Turks in 1909, his private fortune, which was then estimated at £8,000,000, and his estates, which brought him a : revenue of about £3,000,000 a year, were confiscated. That property included: Lands in Thessaly, Greece; Almost half the province of Salonica; A large portion of Macedonia; Extensive holdings in Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Cyprus; The island of Tassos, where an Anglo-German group is developing the zinc deposits; and. The Mosul oilfields.

Post-war treaties compelled Turkey to hand over to Greece certain territories which were once the Sultan’s private property. The Mosul oilfields were dealt with by apportionment to companies which included the Royal Dutch Shell, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and the AngloPersian Oil Company, as well as the French Government.

The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923. however, provided that the property of Turkish nationals was to be respected by the various countries

Harem Favourites in Distress

which took over parts of the Ottoman Empire, and it is this which has led to the developments which the “Daily Mail” now discloses.

Abdul Hamid’s heirs have always protested that the confiscation of the Sultan’s property was illegal, and in their efforts to establish their contention they enlisted the aid of British and American financiers.'

First the Anglo-Hellenic Finance' Corporation was formed, and then the Valideh Trust, Ltd. More recently these companies have been taken over by the Aegian Trust, Ltd., of Westminster, and it is this company which has achieved success. Its task, however, has been difficult and it was only after securing, the good offices of a French jurist of world-wide repute that the differences between the heirs were composed and a common demand made for recognition. ‘

For five years the negotiations have been in progress. Immense sums have been expended in, searching for records of the Sultan’s properties, and a collection of nearly 50,000 title deeds been secured.

In addition the trust has had to find a monthly sum of about £I,OOO to enable some of the Imperial heirs to live.

Men and women brought up in the Oriental luxury and splendour of the Yildiz Kiosk, the Sultan’s palace in Constantinople, and waited upon by slaves to whom their slightest wish was law, have been hard put to it to find enough to eat. Following the death of their Imperial father and the confiscation of his estates these 22 people, who were the heirs to properties worth £300,000;000 were scattered over Europe and Asia.

Those better circumstanced than the rest found a haven in France; some have tried to exist in Budapest. Hungary, where it is reported that one eked out an existence by driving a taxicab.

The Greek Government, it is now reported from Athens, is prepared to recognise the claims of all these heirs in respect of the territory and other property valued at £10,000,000 acquired from Turkey under post-war treaties, and which formed part of Abdul Hamid’s private estate. £200,000,000 Oilfields

Once the settlement is made with Greece, the claims in respect of the properties in _ Palestine, Syria, Iraq and the Mosul oilfields will be proceeded with. The value ,of the property in Iraq alone, consisting as it does of oil lands, has been estimated at £200,000,000. It is understood that the arrangement between the Sultan’s heirs and the Aegian Trust is that the latter shall receive 35 per cent, of the value of all properties recovered.