International Conundrum

The mysterious disappearance of Belgium's richest Jew, Captain Alfred Loewenstein, from an airplane of British register, while flying over the High Seas en route via France to Belgium (TIME, July 16), caused Justice De La Ruwiere of Brussels to exclaim, last week: "The framing of a certificate of Death to fit this case is the most perplexing problem in international law which we have ever encountered."

Should it prove impossible to issue a valid death certificate, the estate, estimated at $55,000,000, of Financier Loewenstein cannot, under Belgian law, become the property of his heirs until his corpse or skeleton is found, or until 1977, 100 years after his birth.