No Case

When the Swiss government tried to bring the U.S. before the United Nations International Court of Justice at The Hague a fortnight ago, it hoped that the court would decide who owns General Aniline & Film Corp., the huge chemical firm that has been a bone of contention ever since World War II, when it was seized by the U.S. as enemy property (TIME, Oct. 14). The Swiss claim that the stock of the $163 million company rightfully belongs to Switzerland's Interhandel holding company, which ran General Aniline before World War II. The U.S. insists that Interhandel was merely a front for Nazi Germany's I.G. Farben.

Passing up the opportunity to set an example for the legal settlement of international disputes, the U.S. last week refused to argue the case at The Hague--and thus all but ended Interhandel's long struggle to regain the company. As a founder of the World Court, though never a defendant there, the U.S. exercised its treaty right to refuse trial in "matters essentially within domestic jurisdiction." Unless the U.S. Supreme Court (which has already turned down one appeal by Interhandel and now has another to consider on a technical point) reverses its position, the sale of rich (1956 sales: $133 million) General Aniline by the Justice Department is assured in the near future.

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