PARCEL IN BANK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24606, 14 May 1941, Page 8

PARCEL IN BANK

VICHY GOVERNMENT'S CASE ORDER FOR RELEASE WANTED (Air Mail) SYDNEY, May 10. Efforts by the Vichy Government, to obtain possession of a brown paper parcel at present resting in the safe deposit of a Sydney bank were mentioned in the Protonotary's Court this week. The parcel was left at the bank in February this vear by the then Viceconsul for France, M. Frank Puaux. The French State is claiming ownership of the parcel, and claims that the Bank of New South Wales is detaining its 'property. The Vichy Government claims that the parcel contains private codes, flies, telegrams, confidential Consular documents, and the key to the combination of the safe in the French Consulate. An affidavit by Mr John Otto Stevenson, solicitor acting for the bank, set out that Puaux, on February 7, deposited a brown paper parcel endox'sed: "To be kept in safe custody and to be handed over to Mr Rosenblum, solicitor, at his request." The endorsement bore M. Puaux's signature. The parcel was accompanied by an authorisation directing the bank to hand the parcel to Mr Rosenblum if he requested it

Mr Stevenson said that the bank was not aware of the nature of the contents of the parcel. M. Puaux, the bank had been informed, was now in New Caledonia, but Mr Rosenblum was unwilling to give his exact address without instructions from M. Puaux himself. The bank asked the court to call upon the French State to show cause why an order should not be made for M. Frank Puaux to appear in the Supreme Court and state the nature and particulars of his claim to the brown paper parcel. The -Protonotary (Mr W. H. Hazelton) granted the order.