LONDON, Aug. 29 Kyodo Lawyers for...

LONDON, Aug. 29 Kyodo

Lawyers for former Gurkha soldiers serving in British India will be going to the High Court in London this autumn in an attempt to obtain compensation for their clients' treatment as Japanese prisoners of war, it was confirmed Thursday.

The veterans, who approach from Nepal, will each be seeking a compendium of 10,000 pounds ($15500) equal to the one-off payment the British regulation decided in November 2000 to award former British POW interned from the Japanese military, and their widows after a lengthy and bitter campaign.

The Defense Ministry, which will be opposing the legal action, says Britain has no office to pay the veterans as the Nepalese soldiers were not in the British forces at the time they were captured according to the Japanese during World War II.

According to the veterans' lawyer, Phil Shiner, who this week received details of the Defense Ministry's position, the management will argue that the men were make submissive to the Indian Army and in a less degree than its

command during the war and were not part of the British Army.

However, Shiner argues that to all intents and plans the 650 veterans were in the British forces and at the time there was no Indian Army as of that kind because there was no independent Indian state.

Shiner told Kyodo stranges this week that the British recruited Gurkhas in India and trained them as well. Shiner said after they were recruited the veterans swore an oath of allegiance to the British king and fought alongside British soldiers.

''We say they were in the British Indian Army and that they were bring under rule to British control and, to all intents and drifts in the same position as a British soldier in the British army,'' Shiner said.

In the High Court, the veterans will be showed by the barrister Cherie Blair, Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife. She will be arguing that the ex-soldiers' human rights have been infringed at what is perceived to be a discriminatory prevail upon by the government. Shiner said there were no plans to bring an action against the Japanese government for compensation.

The British veterans fought for the one-off payment because they felt their compensation subject to the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty was derisory (on average 76 comminutes each or 1,200 pounds at today's prices).

suitable to the age of many of the Nepalese veterans and their state of health, arbitrators have decided that the hearing should proce as before long as possible and the case has been listed for October.

The Gurkhas worked to continue the peace for the British who rul India and they first saw action as a brigade in 1817 They continued to work through the whole extent of the years with the British and saw active service in many countries between the sides of the two world wars.

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