HUGE POLISH CLAIM

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1935, Page 7

HUGE POLISH CLAIM

SUIT AGAINST AUSTRALIA

MINERAL RIGHTS DEMAND £630,000,000 THE TOTAL DESCENDANTS OF COUNT By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Warsaw, Oct. 23. The descendants of Count Strzelecki, who gave Mount Kosciusko in Australia its name, intend to make a claim against the Australian Government for £630,000,000. The Polish Consul at Sydney will hand to the Commonwealth a demand from the heirs of Count Strzelecki in respect to mineral rights conferred on him, which were surrendered to the British Government by his private secretary after a successful lawsuit in 1876. The Strzelecki family’s claims would, lapse, it is stated, by the effluxion of’ time in 1936. The family has raised funds in America and Poland to sue the Commonwealth for the recovery of all benefits arising from the exploitation of the supposed Strzelecki mining rights, amounting to £630,000,000, unless the claim is settled out of court.

A Sydney message says the Polish Con-sul-General, M. L. de Noskowski, says he has heard nothing of the move to sue the Government and he doubts whether such a suit could be seriously considered. He believes the claims were invalidated by the fact that grants to Count Strzelecki were conditional upon his settling in Australia, which he did not do.