The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 210
194 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN years of the last century and the early years of this century, raised loans in the international market. It was alleged on behalf of the French bond- holders, at whose instance France instituted the case before the Court, that the bonds contained "the gold clause," that is to say a stipulation that repayment of the loan and payment of interest would be made in terms of the gold franc. In the wake of the First World War, almost every country, at one time or the other, went off the gold standard and passed legislation that all obligations which had been expressed to be fulfilled in terms of gold would now be fulfilled in terms of the currency of the country. Norway had done the same, and thus a dispute arose between the bond-holders and the borrowers, who claimed that they were entitled to be paid in terms of the gold value of the franc, which, incidentally, was sixty four times the value of the franc. The French Government took up the case of its bond-holders and asked the Court for a declaration in terms of the claim of the bond-holders. Norway filed preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court, one of them being that the Court had no jurisdiction, inasmuch as the French declaration accepting jurisdiction of the Court contained an exception to the effect that the Court would not have jurisdiction in a case which the French Government had determined was a matter falling wholly within its domestic jurisdiction. Norway contended that by virtue of the doctrine of reciprocity it was entitled to take advantage of the exception contained in the French declaration, and that the Norwegian government having determined that this was a matter falling wholly within its domestic jurisdiction the Court had no jurisdiction. The Court accepted the plea and the French application was rejected. Another case in which the case of an individual was the Guardianship Case. It related to the custody of a minor girl whose father was a national of the Netherlands and whose mother had been a Swede. The father, a shipowner, had married a Swedish national and they had lived the greater part of their married life in Sweden. The only child was a daughter. The mother died, and the child's custody was handed over by the Swedish courts to her maternal grandparents in Sweden. The child had lived all her life in Sweden, had never been in