WIX Archives
Re: Lend Lease Act
Posted by MickM on Sun Sep 09, 2001 06:45:48 PM
In reply top Re: Lend Lease Act posted by MickM on Sun Sep 09, 2001 06:39:54 PM
Hi again all.
Here's the reply from David Burke I promised.
Thanks David.....hope you don't mind....
Mick as far as I am concerned the lease-lend ended that long ago that any wrecks that are recovered are the property of whoever
recovers them if they have the necessary permission from the Ministry of Defence and of course if offshore whoevers territorial waters they are in . Certainly when the UAS recovered the Wildcat from a Lough in Northern Ireland they (U.S Navy ) didn't try and get it back. Any paperwork must have been destroyed years ago and in reality any claim that the Ministry has in the U.K would be impossible to enforce abroad.
The only way they could seek to influence a foreign government would be if the wreck contained human remains and even then a local coroner I am sure would have the authority to
exhume . It's a very vague isssue but effectively when something has been abandoned for 50+ years in a court of law ownership would be very hard to establish and would I feel go to whoever's
land it's on. The policy that the U.S Navy has in rather amazing-
if for example the German Government came to Hendon and asked for it's hardware back I think the would be an outcry but thats really what the Navy is trying.
We have seen in the case of the Titanic how salvage rights are fought over - in that case the rights went to the initial salvor. That should be the case with aircraft .
David Burke