With His Majesty's Compliments

In Hong Kong last week a British colonial court decided that 71 U.S.-made planes, formerly the property of Nationalist China, now belong to the Chinese Communists. With the aircraft (including DC-3s, five Convairs and five four-engined Skymasters) went 20,000 tons of maintenance equipment; altogether the property was worth $30 million.

The planes had been operated by Nationalist China's government-owned CNAC and CATC. As Communist armies overran the mainland, the lines retreated to Hong Kong's Kai Tak airfield. There, last November, most of their Chinese personnel declared allegiance to the Communists (TIME, Nov. 21) and shooed off Nationalist officials.

To get the planes out of Communist hands, the Nationalist government sold the property to a U.S. corporation headed by its good friend of Flying Tiger fame, Major General Claire Chennault, who operated Nationalist China's other airline (CAT). But when Chennault tried to take possession, Hong Kong authorities blocked him. There were reports of Communist threats to British business interests; one story was that the Communists threatened to confiscate one British business in Shanghai for every plane that went into Chennault's hands.

Meanwhile, there was an unexplained delay in a final court hearing. Then, in January, His Majesty's government recognized Communist China. In last week's decision, Chief Justice Sir Leslie Gibson ruled that British recognition established Red ownership of the disputed planes. "Any question as to sovereignty ... of a foreign state," he said, "is a question on which the court must be guided by the attitude of His Majesty's government. . . Our State cannot speak with two voices on such a matter, the judiciary saying one thing and the executive another."

At Kai Tak airfield, exultant Chinese Communist mechanics painted Red flags on 71 fuselages.

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