Lord Wright:-

The question in this appeal is the amount of pension to which the respondent is entitled on his retirement from the service of the appellants. His claim is that he is entitled to be paid his pension in Turkish gold pounds, by which is meant the current value of the bullion content of the Turkish gold coin (or its equivalent in the currency of Cyprus) at the appropriate rates of exchange. He succeeded in the Courts below, though there were considerable differences of judicial opinion. In the first Court which was the District Court, two Judges were in his favour while the third dissented. In the Supreme Court of Cyprus, there was again a division of opinion, Strong C. J. delivered a judgment in favour of the appellants, while Thomas J. was of the opposite opinion. The Court being equally divided, the judgment of the lower Court stood.

The appellants, now called the Ottoman Bank, previously called the Imperial Ottoman Bank, were established in 1863 by a Turkish Imperial Firman. The head office is at Istanbul, where its affairs are, and have been, administered by a Direction Generale subject to instructions given by a committee which meets both in London and Paris. The app