We have received from the Stationery Office the First Report
(7s. 6d. net) of the War Compensation Court, which was set up under the Indemnity Act of last year, mainly with the object of evading the consequences of the judgment of the House of
Lords in favour of the De Keyser's Hotel Company against the departments which had tried to revive the most arbitrary pro- cedure of the mediaeval Crown. It is evident from a case reported in this paper that the judgment in question caused some concern to the Compensation Court. The court during the year up to August last dealt with 1,203 claims, and awarded £1,246,678 in compensation—about two-thirds of the sum claimed —and periodical payments of £38,940 a year, or rather more than half as much as the applicants asked for. The claimants owe a debt of gratitude to the De Keyser's Hotel Company for making it clear that private persons could not have their property confiscated by officials without redress.
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