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 UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA^ 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 LIBRARY
 
 INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 ILonUnn: FETTER LANE, E.G. 
 
 C. F. CLAY, Manager 
 
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 minbm^i): loo, PRINCES STREET 
 
 lonton: STEVENS AND SONS, Ltd., 119 and 120, CHANCERY LANE 
 
 Brrltn: A. ASHER AND CO. 
 
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 i^cu) gork: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 ISombag anli ffalcutla: MACMILLAN AND Co., Ltd. 
 
 [Ali Rights reserved^
 
 INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS 
 
 FOR 
 
 DISCUSSION 
 IN CONVERSATION CLASSES 
 
 BY 
 
 L. OPPENHEIM, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 WHEWELL PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 
 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 
 
 ASSOCIATE OK THE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 
 
 
 ' "• .■•. " 
 
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 Cambridge : 
 
 at the University Press 
 
 1909 
 
 1 i Ti \^ 1 1
 
 Cambrttigf: 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
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 PREFACE 
 
 'OR many years I have pursued the practice of 
 
 holding conversation classes following my lectures 
 
 : on international law. The chief characteristic of these 
 
 classes is the discussion of international incidents as 
 
 they occur in everyday life. I did not formerly possess 
 
 any collection, but brought before the class such incidents 
 
 ^ as had occurred during the preceding week. Of late I 
 
 ^ have found it more useful to preserve a record of some 
 
 of these incidents and to add to this nucleus a small 
 
 ^•-1 number of typical cases from the past as well as some 
 
 problem cases, which were invented for the purpose of 
 
 drawing the attention of the class to certain salient 
 
 points of international law. 
 
 •>-' As I was often asked by my students and others to 
 
 r-t bring out a collection of incidents suitable for discussion, 
 
 , and as the printing of such a little book frees me from 
 
 Q the necessity of dictating the cases to my students, I 
 
 O have, although somewhat reluctantly, made up my mind 
 
 to publish the present collection. 
 
 I need hardly emphasise the fact that this collection 
 is not intended to compete either with Scott's Cases o?i 
 Iiitcrnatio)ial Laiv, selected from decisions of English a?id 
 American Courts, or with Pitt Cobbett's Leading Cases 
 and Opinions on International Laiv, both of which are 
 collections of standard value, but intended for quite 
 other purposes than my own. 
 
 I have spent much thought in the endeavour to class 
 my incidents into a number of groups, but having found 
 all such efforts at grouping futile, I therefore present
 
 vi Preface 
 
 them in twenty-five sections, each containing four cases 
 of a different character. Experience has shewn me that 
 in a class lasting two hours I am able to discuss the four 
 cases contained in these sections. 
 
 I have taken special care not to have two similar 
 cases within the same section, for although there are no 
 two cases exactly alike in the collection, there are several 
 possessing certain characteristics in common. It is one 
 of the tasks of the teacher and the students themselves 
 to group together such of my cases as they may think 
 are related to each other by one or more of these traits. 
 
 It has been suggested that notes and hints should be 
 appended to each case, but the purpose for which the 
 collection is published is better served by giving the 
 incidents devoid of any explanatory matter. Should 
 this book induce other teachers of international law to 
 adopt my method of seminar work, it must be left to 
 them to stimulate their classes in such a way as to 
 enable the students to discover on their own initiative 
 the solution of the problems. 
 
 I gladly accepted the suggestion of the publishers 
 that the cases should be printed on writing paper and on 
 one side of the page only, so that notes may be taken 
 and additional cases added. 
 
 I am greatly indebted to Mr Dudley Ward, of St 
 John's College, Cambridge, my assistant, who has prepared 
 the cases for the press and read the proofs. In deciding 
 upon the final form of each case so many of his sugges- 
 tions have been adopted that in many instances I do not 
 know what is my own and what is his work. 
 
 L. O. 
 
 Whewell House, 
 Cambridge, 
 
 June i2tk, 1909.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 1. A Councillor of Legation in Difficulties . . i 
 
 2. Neutral Goods on Enemy Merchantman . . i 
 
 3. American Coasting Trade 3 
 
 4. A German Balloon in Antwerp .... 3 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 5. Use of the White Flag 5 
 
 6. A South American "Pseudo-Republic" . 5 
 
 7. A Tavern Brawl 9 
 
 8. A Threatened Diplomatic Rupture . . • 1 1 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 9. Death Sentence on Russian Terrorists . . 11 
 
 10. The Case of De Jager 13 
 
 11. A Kidnapped Chinaman '5 
 
 1 2. A Case of Bigamy '5 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 13. A Shot across the Frontier 17 
 
 14. A Revolted Prize i? 
 
 15. Investments Abroad 19 
 
 16. Russian Coasting Trade '9 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 17. Exceeding the Speed Limit 21 
 
 18. A New-born Island 21 
 
 19. An Irate (2ueen -5 
 
 20. An Incident in the Black Sea .... 23
 
 viii Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 21. The Case of the Trent 25 
 
 22. A Double Murderer 25 
 
 23. A Masterful Customs Official .... 27 
 
 24. Russian Refugees and Foreign Asylum . . 27 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 25. A Conversion at Sea 29 
 
 26. A Frontier Affray 31 
 
 27. General Vukotitch 31 
 
 28. An Anglo-French Burglar 33 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 29. Signals of Distress 35 
 
 30. A Change of Parts 35 
 
 31. Violation of a Foreign Flag ..... 37 
 
 32. A Pickpocket at Sea ...... 37 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 '^1. Gypsies in Straits 39 
 
 34. A Question of Annexation . . . . . 41 
 
 35. Disputed Fisheries 41 
 
 36. Imperial Coasting Trade 43 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 y]. A Russian Crime tried in Austria ... 43 
 
 38. Stratagem or Perfidy ...... 45 
 
 39. Murder of a German Consul in Mexico . . 47 
 
 40. Cossacks at Large ....... 49 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 41. Islanders in Revolt ...... 49 
 
 42. Seizure of Ambassadors . . . . . . 51 
 
 43. An Envoy in Debt 51 
 
 44. Treaty Bargaining ....... 53
 
 Contents ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 45. A Fallen President 53 
 
 46. A Murder in Monaco 55 
 
 47. A Question of Interpretation .... 57 
 
 48. The Island of Santa Lucia 57 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 An Attache's Chauffeur ... . • 59 
 
 In Quest of Balata 61 
 
 A "Sujet Mi.Kte" 63 
 
 Koreans at the Hague Peace Conference . ■ 63 
 
 49. 
 50. 
 
 51- 
 52. 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 53. The Adventures of a South American Physician 65 
 
 54. Extradition of a British Subject .... 65 
 
 55. The Case of the Oldhamia 69 
 
 56. An Ambassador's Estate . . . • • 11 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 57. Dangers of Ballooning 75 
 
 58. Family Honour 75 
 
 59. An Ocean Chase 11 
 
 60. The Maori King 11 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 61. The Island of Rakahanga 79 
 
 62. A Complaint against the Police .... 79 
 
 63. A Man with two Wives 5^i 
 
 64. A Murder on a Mail Boat 81 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 65. Persian Disorders 83 
 
 66. The Expulsion of Monsieur de Reus ... 85 
 
 67. The Case of McLeod 87 
 
 68. A Thwarted Suicide 87
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 69. An Insult to an Ambassador .... 89 
 
 70. A Question of Legitimacy ..... 89 
 
 71. The Coachman of an Envoy . . . . 91 
 
 72. The Case of Schnaebel^ 91 
 
 SECTION XIX. 
 
 73. Amelia Island 93 
 
 74. Representation to China ..... 93 
 
 75. Exemption from Rates ...... 95 
 
 76. Errant Balloons 97 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 
 "]"]. Sully in England ....... 97 
 
 78. Homicide by an Attache ..... 99 
 
 79. A Disputed Capture 99 
 
 80. The Punishment for Murder loi 
 
 SECTION XXI. 
 
 81. A Traitor's Fate 101 
 
 82. An Interrupted Armistice 103 
 
 83. Shooting Affray in a Legation .... 103 
 
 84. The Surrender of Port Arthur .... 105 
 
 SECTION XXII. 
 
 85. An Ambassador's Brother 105 
 
 86. A Detained Steamer 107 
 
 87. Prussia and the Poles 107 
 
 88. A Charmed Life 109 
 
 SECTION XXIII. 
 
 89. A Daring Robbery 1 1 1 
 
 90. The Fall of Abdul Hamid 113 
 
 91. A President Abroad 113 
 
 92. A Rejected Ambassador 117
 
 Contertts xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SECTION XXIV. 
 
 93. Revictualling of a Fortress 119 
 
 94. Dutch Reprisals . . . . . .119 
 
 95. Birth on the High Seas . . .121 
 
 96. A High-handed Action 121 
 
 SECTION XXV. 
 
 97. The Southern Queen . . . . . .123 
 
 98. A Three-cornered Dispute . . . . 123 
 
 99. Russian Revolutionary Outrage in Paris . . 125 
 100. The Detention of Napoleon I. . . . . 127
 
 SECTION I 
 
 1. A Councillor of Legation in difficulties. 
 
 ^ In r868 the French journalist Leoncc Dupont, the 
 owner of the Parisian newspaper La Nation^ became 
 bankrupt. It was discovered that this paper was really- 
 founded by the councillor of the Russian legation in 
 Paris, Tchitcherine, who had supplied the funds neces- 
 sary to start it, for the purpose of influencing public 
 opinion in Russian interests. The creditors claimed 
 that Tchitcherine was liable for the debts of Dupont, 
 and brought an action against him. 
 
 2. Neutral Goods on Enemy Merchantman. 
 
 A belligerent man-of-war sinks his prize, an enemy 
 merchantman, on account of the impossibility of sparing 
 a prize crew. Part of the cargo belongs to neutral 
 owners, who claim compensation for the loss of their 
 goods. 
 
 o. I. L.
 
 3. American Coasting Trade. 
 
 In 1898, after having acquired the Philippines and 
 the island of Puerto Rico from Spain by the peace 
 treaty of Paris, and in 1899, after having acquired the 
 Hawaian Islands, the United States declared trade 
 between any of her ports and these islands to be coast- 
 ing trade, and reserved it exclusively for American 
 vessels. 
 
 4. A German Balloon m Antwerp. 
 
 The following telegram appeared in the Morning 
 Post of April 7th, 1909, dated Brussels, April 6th: 
 
 " An incident which is regarded with some serious- 
 ness by Belgians has occurred at Antwerp. A balloon 
 which for a time was observed to be more or less 
 stationary over the forts finally came to earth in close 
 proximity to them. It proved to be a German balloon, 
 the Dnsseldorf No. 3, controlled by two men, who, on 
 being interrogated by the Commander of the fortifica- 
 tions, declared themselves to be merely a banker and 
 a farmer interested in ballooning in an amateur fashion, 
 who had been obliged to descend. The General com- 
 manding the Territorial Division adjoining Antwerp was 
 informed of the incident. On an inquiry being opened 
 it was found that the aeronauts were none other than 
 two German officers, and that the balloon forms part of 
 the German Army materiel. The Minister for War was 
 immediately informed, and he has communicated the facts 
 of the case to his colleagues. The inquiry is being con- 
 tinued. In the balloon was found a quantity of photo- 
 graphic apparatus."
 
 SECTION II 
 
 5. The Use of the White Flag. 
 
 During war between states A and B, an outlying 
 fort of a harbour of state A is being bombarded by the 
 fleet of state B, and is in danger of capture. Suddenly 
 the white flag is hoisted on the fort, and a boat flying 
 a white flag and carrying an officer and some men 
 leaves the fort and makes for the flagship of the bom- 
 barding fleet. Thereupon the fleet receives the order to 
 cease firing. Shortly after this has been carried out, the 
 boat flying the white flag, instead of continuing its course, 
 returns to the fort. Under cover of this manoeuvre the 
 bombarded garrison succeeds in abandoning the fort and 
 withdrawing in safety. 
 
 6. A South American '' Pseitdo-repub/ic" 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of April 26th, 
 1904: 
 
 " The utility for the practical politician of the study 
 of that branch of sociology to which M. Lebon has 
 given the non-classical name of the psychology of crowds 
 is amusingly demonstrated in the fact of the efforts of 
 the still nebulous State of Counany to materialize and 
 to attain a separate and independent existence among 
 the South American Republics. What is taking place 
 would seem to be a simple phenomenon of suggestion,
 
 induced by the example of Panama. The fate of the 
 vague territory known as Counany had been settled, as 
 every one supposed, by the arbitral sentence of the Swiss 
 Tribunal by which this region, with which France and 
 Brazil had played diplomatic battledore and shuttlecock 
 for more than 175 years, was finally handed over to the 
 latter Power. 
 
 " Brazil has never, it appears, taken effective posses- 
 sion of Counany, and the population, whose flag, if 
 ethnographic differences were to be symbolized in it, 
 ought to be a sort of Joseph's coat of many colours, are 
 now apparently once more appealing to the civilized 
 world to aid them to secure a separate existence. What 
 recently occurred on the Isthmus of Panama, when a 
 new State sprang full fledged into being, would seem to 
 have been an object lesson acting automatically on the 
 nerves of these Indians, whites, negroes, and half-castes, 
 welding them into a compact whole and giving them 
 a self-consciousness craving European sanction. Hypno- 
 tized by Panama, and, it may be, counting upon the 
 eventual support of one of the Continental Powers which 
 has already shown the world that Brazilian affairs are 
 not beyond the range of its diplomatic vigilance, Counany 
 steps once more to the fore. 
 
 " A Paris morning paper, the Journal, plays the role 
 of introducer of the new Counany Ambassador. This 
 Ambassador is a certain M. Brezet, who comes to France, 
 in spite of the sentence of the arbitral tribunal, as Presi- 
 dent of a State which is described by all competent 
 authorities as a/j-^W<?-republic, summarily wiped off the 
 map as an independent State. M. Brezet, moreover, is 
 a Parisian who has served, it is said, in the French forces
 
 in Guiana. He is now for the second time enjoying the 
 confidence of the Counanians, strong in the prestige won 
 by his success in having repulsed the Brazilians who 
 sought dutifully to carry out the terms of the clauses of 
 the Berne Decree. ' After having prepared the military 
 and administrative reorganization of Counany, he has 
 come on a mission to Europe to defend the interests 
 entrusted to him.' Such is the story reported by the 
 Journal. 
 
 " Counany, now described as the vast territory be- 
 tween the Amazon and the two Guianas, is not merely a 
 relatively accessible stretch of coast-line and Hinterland 
 for a certain enterprising European colonial Power, which 
 has already prospected in Brazil, Venezuela, and the un- 
 known world between the Amazon and the Orinoco. 
 Counany is likewise on the high road of sea communi- 
 cation between the south of South America and the 
 eventual link between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
 known as the Panama Canal. The Counany coast-line 
 is a covetable strip of the South American coast which 
 at more favourable moments might even distract our 
 attention from Morocco." 
 
 7. A Tavern Brazvl. 
 
 In 1902, in an inn on the German side of the German- 
 French frontier, an altercation arises between Franz 
 Heller, an Austrian subject, and a Frenchman. They 
 leave the inn together, still quarrelling. The Frenchman 
 hits Heller with his stick and runs away across the 
 frontier. Heller, however, draws a revolver and shoots 
 the Frenchman dead. The French government demands 
 his extradition for murder.
 
 II 
 
 8. A Threatened Diplomatic Rupture. 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of Feb. 22nd, 
 1908, dated Sofia, Feb. 21st: 
 
 " A diplomatic rupture between Servia and Monte- 
 negro is threatened. The Servian Minister has been 
 instructed to leave Cettigne should satisfaction not be 
 accorded for certain injurious observations made by 
 M. Tomanovich, the Montenegrin Premier, in the course 
 of a recent speech. Relations betw^een the two dynasties 
 and countries have long been strained, and the quarrel 
 has become acute since the refusal of the Servian 
 Government to take the measures demanded by Monte- 
 negro against refugees and others accused of partici- 
 pation in the recent plot against the life of Prince 
 Nicholas." 
 
 SECTION III 
 
 9. Death Sentence on Rtissia^i Terrorists. 
 
 The following appeared in the Twics of Feb. 29th, 
 
 1908: 
 
 "St Petersburg, Feb. 27. 
 
 " A Court-martial sitting in the fortress of St Peter 
 and St Paul to-day tried the Terrorists who were recently 
 arrested. Seven, including two women and the Italian 
 Calvino, were condemned to death. 
 
 "Rome, Feb. 28. 
 
 " A most painful impression has been created through- 
 out Italy by the confirmation to-day of the report that
 
 13 
 
 a young Italian journalist, Mario Calvino, has been con- 
 demned to death by Court-martial in St Petersburg. 
 All that is known is that Calvino was arrested on a 
 charge of complicity in a plot for the assassination of 
 the Grand Duke Nicholas, that he was condemned with 
 a batch of six other prisoners after a very brief trial held 
 within closed doors, and that he will be hanged next 
 Saturday. Many friends and colleagues of Calvino in 
 Italy, as well as in Russia, assert the impossibility of his 
 complicity in a Nihilist plot, and there prevails a general 
 belief that his condemnation has been due to a judicial 
 error. In answer to representations made to Signor 
 Tittoni from Milan, the Foreign Minister has stated that 
 the Italian Ambassador at St Petersburg has received 
 instructions to do his utmost on behalf of the condemned 
 man. Up to the present moment it would appear that 
 no result of his exertions has yet been reported." 
 
 10. The Case of De Jager. 
 
 De Jager, a burgher of the South African Republic, 
 but a settled resident in Washbank in Natal when the 
 war broke out, joined, in October, 1899, the Boer forces, 
 which had occupied Washbank and held that town for 
 about six months. He served with them in different 
 capacities until March, 1900, when he went to the Trans- 
 vaal, and took no further part in the war. In March, 
 I90i,he was prosecuted for high treason, but endeavoured 
 to exculpate himself by maintaining that, as the Boers 
 had occupied Washbank when he joined their forces, he 
 was not then living on English territory.
 
 15 
 
 11. A Kidnapped Chinaman. 
 
 Sun Yat Sen, a political refugee from China, living in 
 London, was induced, in 1896, to enter the house of the 
 Chinese Legation in London. He was kept under arrest 
 there in order to be conveyed as a prisoner to China, 
 the Chinese envoy contending that, as the house of the 
 Legation was Chinese territory, the English government 
 had no right to interfere. 
 
 12. A Case of Digamy. 
 
 In 1895 Alfred Ungar, a German b}- birth, who is 
 naturalised in England without having ceased to be 
 a German subject, goes over to Germany and there 
 marries his niece, whom he brings back to London as 
 his wife. In 1896 he deserts her, settles down in Bristol, 
 and in that town goes through the form of marriage 
 with another woman. In 1898 his German wife, being 
 informed of his whereabouts and of his second marriage, 
 has him arrested for bigamy.
 
 17 
 
 SECTION IV 
 
 13. A Shot across the Frontier. 
 
 On Sept. 26th, 1887, a German soldier, on sentry 
 duty at the frontier near Vexaincourt, fired a shot from 
 the German side and killed an individual who was on 
 French territory. 
 
 14. A Revolted Prize. 
 
 An enemy merchantman having been captured 
 during war, a prize crew is put on board and she is 
 navigated in the direction of a port of the state which 
 made the capture. During the voyage the original crew 
 succeed in overpowering the prize crew. The master 
 again takes command, has the prize crew put in irons, 
 and steers for a friendly port. Before the vessel gets 
 there, however, she is again captured. 
 
 Can the crew be punished ? 
 
 o. I. L.
 
 19 
 
 15. Investments Abroad. 
 
 Armand Brunetiere, a French merchant in Paris, 
 who has never been in England, instructs a broker on 
 the London Stock Exchange to buy i^i,ooo worth of 
 consols, and to keep the stock at his disposal. The 
 order is carried out, and six months afterwards 
 Brunetiere dies. His heirs claim the stock, but the 
 English brokers refuse to hand it over unless the English 
 estate duty, which is claimed by the officials of the 
 Inland Revenue, has first been paid. 
 
 16. Russian Coasting Trade. 
 
 Russia declared, by a ukase of 1897, operating from 
 1900, that trade between any of her ports and that of 
 Vladivostok should be considered as coasting trade and 
 therefore exclusively reserved for Russian vessels.
 
 21 
 
 SECTION V 
 
 17. Exceeding the Speed Limit. 
 
 In 1904 Mr. Gurney, secretary of the British Lega- 
 tion at Washington, was brought before the police 
 magistrate at Lee, Massachusetts, on the charge of 
 having driven a motor car to the public danger. The 
 charge being proved, he was fined. 
 
 18. A New-bor7i Island. 
 
 An island rises in the sea on the boundary line of 
 the territorial maritime belt of another island in the 
 possession of state A. A portion of the new-born 
 island stretches into the maritime belt surrounding the 
 previously existing island, and the remainder into the 
 open sea. A man-of-war of state B lands a non- 
 commissioned officer and three men on the part of the 
 island which stretches into the open sea, with the order 
 to hoist the flag of state B and to take possession of it 
 by occupation. 
 
 Is this occupation valid ?
 
 23 
 
 19. An Irate Queen. 
 
 Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated her throne in 
 1654, and, after having spent some time first in Brussels 
 and later in Rome, where she embraced the Roman 
 Catholic faith, in 1656 took up her residence in France. 
 Here she discovered that her grand equerry and favourite, 
 Monaldeschi, was betraying her personal secrets. She 
 therefore on the lOth November sentenced him to death, 
 and caused the execution to be carried out on the 
 spot by soldiers of her bodyguard, under the command 
 of Count Lentinelli, the captain of the guard. 
 
 20. An Incident in the Black Sea. 
 
 The following appeared in the papers dated St. 
 Petersburg, August nth, 1907: 
 
 " A telegram from Sochi, in the Caucasus, states that 
 last night the steamer Tchernovior, while on a trip from 
 Tchubgia to Tuapse on the Black Sea, was plundered on 
 the high seas by robbers, who forced the passengers to 
 deliver up their money and valuables. One passenger 
 was wounded by a revolver shot. The robbers, who 
 numbered 15, took possession of the ship's safe and 
 forced the captain to stop the ship and to land them. 
 They further ordered him not to stop at Tuapse, but to 
 proceed direct to Sochi, threatening him with murder if 
 he disobeyed. 
 
 " A later telegram from Sochi states that the passen- 
 gers were robbed of 10,000 roubles (i^ 1,000), and that 
 1,700 roubles (iJ"i70) were stolen from the ship's safe."
 
 25 
 
 (( 
 
 SECTION VI 
 
 21. The Case of the Trent.'' 
 
 On Nov. 8th, i86i, during the American Civil War, 
 the Federal cruiser Sa?i Jacinto stopped the British mail 
 steam Trent on her voyage from Havana to the British 
 port of Nassau in the Bahamas, forcibly took off Messrs. 
 Mason and Slidell, political agents sent by the Con- 
 federate States to Great Britain and France, together 
 with their secretaries, and then allowed the vessel to 
 continue her voyage. 
 
 22. A Double Murderer. 
 
 In 1885 James Smith, an English subject, commits 
 a murder in London, but succeeds in escaping. In 1886 
 he appears in Rome under the name of Edward Fox, 
 and commits a murder there also. He is tried in Rome 
 and condemned to penal servitude for life. In 1906, 
 after having served 20 years and exhibited exemplary 
 conduct, his sentence is remitted by the King of Italy. 
 His real identity having been established during the 
 trial, on his release the question of the possibility of his 
 extradition for the previous murder is discussed in the 
 English press.
 
 27 
 
 23. A Masterful Customs Official. 
 
 On Dec. 24th, 1907, the following appeared in the 
 morning papers, dated Winnipeg, Dec. 23rd : 
 
 " An American Customs official, suspecting two 
 Canadian farmers of smuggling barley, surprised them 
 near the boundary, and, threatening them with a revolver, 
 compelled them to cross into American territory. The 
 official had no warrant, and the farmers returned into 
 Canada. The matter has been laid before the British 
 Ambassador in Washington and the Canadian Govern- 
 ment. Ten thousand dollars damages are claimed." 
 
 24. Rtcssian Refugees and Foreign Asylum. 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of March 6th, 
 1908, dated Paris, March 5th : 
 
 " Signatures are being collected in Paris for an 
 address ' to the Swiss people,' which already bears the 
 names of MM. Anatole France, Octave Mirbeau, 
 Painleve, Jaures, Scignobos, and others, urging them to 
 refuse the extradition of the Russian Socialist Revolu- 
 tionary Bromar Vassilieff, who killed the Prefect of 
 Police of Penza in January, 1906. The address declares 
 the deed of Bromar Vassilieff to have been purely 
 political. France, it contends, refused to surrender 
 Hartmann, who had taken part in the attempt against 
 Alexander II. Italy refused to extradite Michel Gotz, 
 a member of the organization that assassinated M. 
 Sipiagin and M. Plehve. Sweden refused to give up 
 Tcherniak, accused of having participated in the attempt
 
 29 
 
 against M. Stolypin. Only a few days ago, says this 
 address, an Austrian jury acquitted Wanda Kraguelska, 
 who boasted of having thrown a bomb at the Governor- 
 General of Poland. The Swiss Republic, it adds, will 
 not do what monarchies and Empires have not done. 
 It was deceived when it handed over to the Russian 
 authorities Belcntsoff, who before his trial died from 
 flog-eine in prison. Free Switzerland having always 
 done itself honour by defending the political refugees of 
 all nations against the largest Powers, the signatories to 
 the address feel certain that she will not be false to this 
 noble tradition by allowing Bromar Vassilieff to be 
 extradited." 
 
 SECTION VII 
 
 25. A Conversion at Sea. 
 
 On July 4th and 6th, 1904, during the Russo- 
 Japanese war, the Peterluirg and the Smolensk, vessels 
 belonging to the Russian volunteer fleet in the Black 
 Sea, passed the Turkish Straits, flying the Russian com- 
 mercial flag. They likewise passed the Suez Canal 
 under their commercial flag, but after leaving Suez they 
 converted themselves into men-of-war by hoisting the 
 Russian war flag, and began to exercise the right of visit 
 and search over neutral merchantmen. On July 19th 
 the Peterburg captured the British P. and O. steamer 
 Malacca, for alleged carriage of contraband, and put 
 a prize crew on board for the purpose of navigating her 
 to Libau.
 
 31 
 
 26. A Frontier Affray. 
 
 On May 12th, 1908, the Petite Repiibliqiie published 
 a telegram from Lisbon announcing that a collision 
 between Portuguese and Spanish troops had occurred at 
 Porto Allegro. It appeared that several Spanish smugglers 
 were surprised while attempting to smuggle quantities 
 of tobacco and silk across the frontier into Portugal, 
 and resisted the Portuguese guards. A detachment of 
 Spanish troops arrived on the scene during the fight and 
 crossed over on to Portuguese territory. Here they were 
 fired upon by the Portuguese, who, in the darkness, 
 mistook them for a second band of smucfelers. The 
 Spaniards together with the smugglers now opened fire 
 and a terrible fight ensued in which even women took 
 part. Before long, however, the Spaniards, who were 
 evidently under the impression that they, too, had to 
 deal with smugglers, discovered their error, and ceased 
 fire, and the smugglers immediately fled to the moun- 
 tains leaving several dead, including two women. 
 Several of the soldiers on both sides were either killed 
 or wounded. 
 
 27. G enteral Vukotitch. 
 
 On Oct. 19th, 1908, during the state of tension in 
 the Balkan peninsula resulting from the declaration by 
 Austria-Hungary of her sovereignty over the provinces 
 of Bosnia-Herzegovina, General Vukotitch, a Monte- 
 negrin envoy, was charged with a special mission for
 
 1 -^ 
 
 Belgrade by Prince Nicholas. He travelled to his desti- 
 nation by way of Fiume, but, on arriving at Agram, he 
 was ordered from the train by gendarmes and conducted 
 to the Prefecture of Police. There he was searched, and 
 his purse and everything else he had in his possession 
 were taken from him. At the same time his basfsfaee 
 was completely ransacked. He told the Ge^idarmerie 
 officers his name, explained his staUts, and showed them 
 the passport and the permit delivered to him by the 
 Austro-Hungarian Legation at Cettigne, but all without 
 any effect. He was, however, allowed to send a telegram 
 to Baron von Aehrenthal, complaining of the treatment 
 he had received as a violation of international usage, 
 and, after some time, an order came from Vienna for his 
 release. 
 
 28. An Ano^lo-French Bitro^lar. 
 
 Francois Lebrun, having committed a burglary in 
 Paris, is sentenced to ten years' hard labour, but after 
 one year's imprisonment succeeds in escaping to Eng- 
 land. On the request of the French police he is arrested 
 in London and brought before the magistrate in order 
 that he may be extradited. His counsel however objects 
 to his extradition on the ground that Lebrun was born 
 in London and was therefore, although his parents were 
 French, an English subject. 
 
 o. I. L.
 
 SECTION VIII 
 
 29. Signals of Distress. 
 
 Vattel (ill. § 178) relates the following case: In 
 1755, during war between Great Britain and France, 
 a British man-of-war appeared off Calais, made signals 
 of distress for the purpose of soliciting French vessels to 
 approach to her succour, and then seized a sloop and 
 some sailors who came out to bring her help. 
 
 30. A Change of Parts. 
 
 Aaron Nietitsch, a native of one of the Balkan states, 
 while residing in London for two years for the purpose 
 of learning English, contracted heavy debts which he 
 did not pay on leaving the country. Shortly after- 
 wards he came again to England as he was appointed 
 secretary to the diplomatic envoy of his home state in 
 this country. His creditors, who knew quite well that 
 they could not sue a member of a foreign legation for 
 debts contracted during the time of his mission, thought 
 that they could proceed against Aaron Nietitsch, because 
 he had contracted his debts while staying in this country 
 as a private individual. 
 
 How would the case have to be decided if Aaron 
 Nietitsch had contracted debts while in England as an 
 attache, had left the country at the end of his mission, 
 and had afterwards returned as a private individual ? 
 
 3—2
 
 37 
 
 31. Violation of a Foreign Flag. 
 
 A political criminal, imprisoned in Port-au-Prince, in 
 Hayti, escapes from the prison and makes for the 
 harbour, with the intention of taking refuge on board 
 a foreign man-of-war lying there. On his way he meets 
 the diplomatic envoy of the state to which the man-of- 
 war belongs, and as the Haytian police are on his heels 
 he asks for the envoy's protection and safe conduct to 
 the vessel. The latter calls a passing fly and enters it 
 with the fugitive, but is overtaken by the police. There- 
 upon he takes the flag of his home state out of his 
 pocket and throws the folds of it over the fugitive for 
 the purpose of protecting him. The police nevertheless 
 arrest the man. The envoy sends a report of the affair 
 to his government, which requests from Hayti not only 
 severe punishment of the police for the violation of the 
 envoy's privileges and the insult to its flag, but also 
 the release of the rearrested political criminal and his 
 safe conduct to its man-of-war lying in the harbour of 
 Port-au-Prince. 
 
 32. A Pickpocket at Sea. 
 
 An Italian passenger on board the French mail-boat 
 Le Nord, plying between Calais and Dover, picks the 
 pocket of an Englishman while the boat is two miles out 
 on her way from Dover to Calais. The thief is arrested 
 in Calais. Can England claim his extradition } 
 
 115917
 
 39 
 
 SECTION IX 
 
 33. Gypsies in Straits. 
 
 In March, 1908, the Westminster Gazette contained 
 the following paragraph : 
 
 " On the first day of October last a gipsy van con- 
 taining a family of eight was escorted by Belgian 
 gendarmes to the French frontier. On attempting to 
 cross the boundary the wanderers were stopped by 
 French gendarmes, who forbade any further advance. 
 Thus beset behind and before by the authorities, the 
 van-dwellers perforce made the best of a bad job, and 
 resigned themselves to a long stay. On the whole, they 
 have had the best of it; for they, at any rate, had a 
 comfortable roof over their heads, while the four police- 
 men who were on constant guard by day and night, 
 keeping the unwelcome travellers at bay, were exposed 
 to all the chances of the weather. Days, weeks, and 
 months rolled slowly by. February commenced, and 
 still the gipsy-van stood on no-man's-land, guarded by 
 weary gendarmes, each drawing a franc and a half a 
 day, and wondering when the other side was going to 
 give in, and allow the gipsies to resume their wanderings. 
 As far as is known the van is there to-day, and nobody 
 appears to care very much about its fate. Perhaps in 
 future years when the six gipsy children are grown up 
 and leave the old home, and its paintwork has grown 
 still more shabby, and the wheels have sunk up to their
 
 41 
 
 hubs into the soil, somebody will come across it and the 
 patient gendarmes, and begin asking questions. Mean- 
 time the little comedy has already cost the French 
 municipality of Mont Saint-Martin more than i,ooo fr., 
 while the local police force has had to be helped by the 
 neighbouring brigade to perform its ordinary duties. 
 
 " It is true that negotiations are going on with a view 
 to settling the matter, but as four months have already 
 passed since the van reached the frontier, there seems 
 no particular reason for expecting a speedy conclusion 
 to the farce." 
 
 34. A Question of Aitnexatzon. 
 
 Karl Abel, born in Nassau in 1840, left that country 
 in 1865 for England for the purpose of settling there in 
 business. In 1866 Nassau is conquered by Prussia and 
 subjugated. Has Abel become a Prussian subject } 
 
 What would the decision be in the case of the native 
 of a province transferred by cession to another state, who 
 was domiciled abroad at the time of cession } 
 
 35. Di spilled Fisheries. 
 
 An island rises in the open sea three and a half 
 miles from the shore of state A and is acquired through 
 occupation by state B, which establishes a fishing-station 
 there. Very soon a conflict arises between states A and 
 B on account of the fisheries in the waters between the 
 new-born island and the continent. 
 
 How is the controversy to be settled ?
 
 43 
 
 36. Impe^nal Coasting Trade. 
 
 At the Colonial Conferences in 1902 and 1907 
 Australian statesmen brought before the Imperial 
 Government the question whether the term " coasting 
 trade," as used in British commercial treaties, could not 
 be given such an extension of definition as would allow 
 the entire exclusion of foreign shipping from the carry- 
 ing trade between the United Kingdom and Australia. 
 
 SECTION X 
 
 37. A Russian CiHme tried in A^istria. 
 
 The following appeared in the Westminster Gazette 
 on Feb. 19th, 1908 : 
 
 "Wadowice (Galicia), Feb. 18. 
 
 "Judgment was {)ronounced to-day in the trial, which 
 began in the District Court here yesterday, of Wanda 
 Dobrodzicka, a young Russian woman charged with 
 having thrown a bomb at General Skallon, Governor- 
 General of Warsaw, on May i8th, 1906. 
 
 "The indictment set forth the existence of a very 
 skilfully devised plot to kill the Governor-General. As 
 he very seldom left the castle it was necessary to do 
 something to compel him to come out. Accordingly 
 one of the conspirators, in the uniform of a Russian 
 officer, grossly insulted the German Vice-Consul, It 
 became necessary, therefore, for the Governor-General 
 to pay a personal visit to the Vice-Consul to express his
 
 45 
 
 regret, officially, at such an occurrence. This was exactly 
 what the conspirators had reckoned upon, and they laid 
 their plans accordingly. Wanda Dobrodzicka, who was 
 only twenty years of age, was, it was alleged, entrusted 
 with the task of killing the Governor. According to the 
 prosecution, she took up her position on a balcony which 
 he would pass, and when his carriage came she hurled a 
 bomb at it. The bomb, however, failed to explode. In 
 the confusion the woman escaped and succeeded in 
 making her way to Trieste, going thence to Italy and 
 Switzerland, and afterwards coming to Galicia, where 
 she married and settled down. 
 
 "She was arrested on October 20th, 1907, and the 
 Russian Government demanded her extradition. As, 
 however, through her marriage, she had become an 
 Austrian subject, the Galician authorities decided that 
 she must be tried in Galicia. The jury returned a 
 verdict of ' Not guilty ' on both counts of the indictment. 
 The accused was acquitted, and was immediately re- 
 leased, as no notice of appeal was given by the Public 
 Prosecutor. The prisoner having been declared ' Not 
 guilty' by the Polish jury, notwithstanding her full 
 admission of having thrown the bombs, was accorded 
 a great ovation by the crowd, who presented her with 
 flowers." 
 
 38. Stratai^cni or Perfidy ? 
 
 In 1783, during war between Great Britain and 
 France, the Sybille, a P^rench frigate, enticed the Hussar, 
 a British man-of-war, by displaying the British flag and
 
 47 
 
 intimating herself to be a distressed prize of a British 
 captor. The Hussar approached to succour her, but 
 the latter at once attacked the Hussar without shewing 
 the French flag. She was, however, overpowered and 
 captured. 
 
 39. Murder of a German Consul in Mexico. 
 
 In 1906 the German consul in Oaxaca, a town in 
 the Mexican state of Puebla, was murdered while in the 
 house of a Mexican named Conttolene, with whom he 
 had had a dispute. Conttolene was arrested and prose- 
 cuted, but acquitted. However his nephew, a Mexican 
 named Rangel, gave himself up for the crime and was 
 condemned to two years' imprisonment. As this punish- 
 ment was considered too light the prosecuting counsel 
 appealed, but withdrew his appeal by order of the public 
 prosecutor; and the light sentence on Rangel was therefore 
 allowed to stand. The German government considered 
 the punishment meted out to Rangel insufficient, and 
 made representations to the Mexican government com- 
 plaining of the fact that the appeal was withdrawn by 
 order of the public prosecutor. The Mexican government 
 answered that it disapproved of the action of the public 
 prosecutor, because it recognised its international duty 
 sufficiently to protect the lives of foreigners in Mexico 
 and to punish adequately any murder of a foreign resi- 
 dent. On its recommendation the governor of the state 
 of Puebla deprived the public prosecutor concerned of 
 his office.
 
 49 
 
 40. Cossacks at Large. 
 
 On June 27th, 1908, a telegram from Brody, in Eastern 
 Galicia, stated that a party of 14 Cossacks crossed the 
 frontier into Austria, plundered a house near Radzi- 
 willoff, shot dead the owner and his wife, and cut off his 
 daughter's hands and carried them away. They also 
 mutilated two other persons who were returning across 
 the frontier. Austrian gendarmes captured two of the 
 Cossacks. 
 
 SECTION XI 
 
 41. Islanders in Revolt. 
 
 The natives of a small island in the possession of 
 England rise and, after murdering the majority of the 
 whites, imprison the remainder. No English man-of- 
 war is on the spot, but the commander of a French war 
 vessel in the neighbourhood, who is informed of the 
 insurrection by a fugitive, resolves to interfere to save 
 the lives of the surviving whites. He therefore sails 
 at once for the island, shells the harbour, disembarks 
 a number of men, relieves the white prisoners, and 
 remains in command of the island until an English 
 man-of-war arrives on the spot. 
 
 o. I. L.
 
 51 
 
 42. Seizure of Ambassadors. 
 
 The Marquis de Monti, the French envoy in Poland 
 during a war between Poland and Russia, being in 
 Dantzic when, in 1734, that town capitulated to the 
 Russians, was seized and made prisoner because he had 
 taken an active part in the war ; he was not released 
 until 1736, although France protested against his 
 captivity. 
 
 When the Marechal de Belle Isle, the French 
 ambassador to Prussia, passed, in 1774, on his way to 
 Berlin, through Hanover, he was seized, made a prisoner, 
 and sent to England, which country, together with 
 Hanover, was then at war with France. 
 
 43. An Envoy ifi Debt. 
 
 Baron de Wrech, who had for some time been 
 minister plenipotentiary of the Landgraf of Hesse- 
 Cassel at Paris, was recalled in 1772. When he asked 
 for his passports, the Due d'Aiguillon, the French foreign 
 secretary, refused to deliver them to him before he had 
 paid debts due to the Marquis de Bezons and other 
 creditors.
 
 53 
 
 44. Treaty Bargaining. 
 
 States A and B enter into a new commercial treaty in 
 which, among other stipulations, it is agreed that state A 
 should lower by 20 per cent, its general import duty on 
 manufactured cotton goods coming from state B, and 
 that, in return for this reduction, the latter should reduce 
 by 20 per cent, its general import duty on manufactured 
 leather goods coming from state A. 
 
 Some of the other states possessing commercial 
 treaties with A and B, which embody the most favoured 
 nation clause, at once demand from A and B that the 
 reduction of 20 per cent, of import duty on manufactured 
 cotton and leather goods should also be granted to the 
 imports from their respective territories. 
 
 SECTION XII 
 
 45. A Fallen Presidetit. 
 
 The following appeared in the papers on Dec. 4th, 
 1908, during a revolution in Hayti, when the president 
 Alexis had fled to a French training ship in the 
 harbour of Port-au-Prince : 
 
 " Port-au-Prince, Dec. 2. 
 
 " President Nord Alexis is safe on board the French 
 training ship Dugicay Trouin. At the last moment the 
 President yielded to the picas of those about him, and 
 precisely at five o'clock a salute of 21 guns announced 
 his departure from the Palace.
 
 55 
 
 " Previously to his departure the French Minister and 
 other foreign representatives, with a specially-formed 
 committee, forced themselves on the President, who 
 finally consented to withdraw. Shouts and jeers of 
 derision greeted President Nord Alexis as he entered 
 his carriage. The French Minister sat beside him, and 
 threw the folds of the Tricolor over the shoulder of the 
 President to protect him. Along the route the people 
 lining the streets greeted the President with curses. 
 When he arrived at the wharf the mob lost all restraint. 
 Infuriated women penetrated the cordon of troops, and 
 shrieked the coarsest insults in the face of President 
 Alexis. The people tried to hurl themselves upon him, 
 fighting with hands and feet with the soldiers, who, in 
 order to disengage the President, discharged their 
 muskets, and the crowd then fell back. President 
 Alexis, still draped in the Tricolor, boarded a skiff, his 
 suite tumbling in after him. Haitian, French, and 
 American warships fired a salute to the fallen President. 
 As he was embarking a woman aimed a blow at his side 
 with a knife, but missed him. A man, however, suc- 
 ceeded in striking the President a glancing blow on the 
 neck with his fist." 
 
 46. A Mtirde)" in Monaco. 
 
 In August, 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Goold, the Monte 
 Carlo murderers, were arrested in Marseilles, to which 
 town they had succeeded in escaping before the murder 
 became known. The Monacan government demanded 
 their extradition and France was ready to comply with 
 the request. Mrs. Goold, however, was by birth of French
 
 57 
 
 nationality, and it was doubtful whether she had been 
 legally married to Mr, Goold. Under these circum- 
 stances the French government refused to extradite 
 Mrs. Goold, before it had been proved by inquiries in 
 England whether or not a legal marriage had taken place 
 between herself and Goold. 
 
 47. A Question of Interpretation. 
 
 According to Article XIII of the Treaty of July nth, 
 1799, — confirmed by Article XII of the Treaty of May 
 1st, 1828, — between the United States of America and 
 Prussia which is now valid for the whole German 
 empire, in case one of the contracting parties is a 
 belligerent, no articles carried by vessels of the other 
 contracting party shall be considered contraband, but 
 nevertheless the belligerent party shall have the right to 
 seize any military stores carried by vessels of the other 
 party on payment of their full value. 
 
 Has the Declaration of London, 1909, any influence 
 on the validity of this old treaty stipulation ? 
 
 If not, in the event of war between Germany and 
 another power, can powers possessing most fav^oured 
 nation treaties with Germany claim the same treatment 
 with regard to contraband for their own vessels as 
 Germany must grant to vessels of the United States .-* 
 
 48. The Island of Santa Lucia. 
 
 In 1639 the island of Santa Lucia, in the Antilles, 
 was occupied by England, but in the following year the 
 English settlers were massacred by the natives, and no
 
 59 
 
 attempt was made by England to re-establish the colony. 
 In 1650 France, considering the island no man's land, 
 took possession of it. England, however, contended for 
 many years that she had not abandoned the island. 
 After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, the ques- 
 tion of ownership was referred to the decision of certain 
 commissioners, and England claimed that having been 
 driven out by force she had not abandoned the island 
 sine spe redeundi, and that therefore France, in 1650, had 
 no right to consider the island as no man's land. Finally, 
 by the peace treaty of Paris of 1763, England resigned 
 her claims. 
 
 SECTION XIII 
 
 49. An Attachd's Chauffeur. 
 
 In November, 1908, the driver to the Military Attache 
 at the United States Embassy was summoned at 
 Huntingdon for driving a motor-car at Little Stukeley 
 at a speed dangerous to the public, and which was 
 stated to be 36 miles an hour. The solicitor for the 
 defendant, who did not appear, claimed that he was 
 exempt from proceedings such as these, but admitted 
 that he was not in a position to prove it. A letter 
 of explanation was read, which stated that it was 
 very embarrassing to have a servant charged with an 
 offence against English law, and asking that the charge 
 be withdrawn. The bench decided to go on with the 
 case, and imposed a fine of ;{^I2 and costs.
 
 6i 
 
 50. In Quest of Balata. 
 
 The following- notices appeared in the papers in the 
 latter part of August, 1907, concerning a frontier inci- 
 dent between British Guiana and Venezuela : 
 
 "Georgetown, Aug. 18. 
 
 " Captain Calder, with a small armed force, went 
 down the Barima river and, crossing the boundary, 
 invaded Venezuelan territory. He then demanded at 
 the point of the revolver that 4,000 pounds of balata, 
 said to have been won in a British forest, should be given 
 up. The incident has been reported to President Castro. 
 Excitement prevails at Morawhanna, the British frontier 
 head-quarters, the people fearing measures of retaliation. 
 Trouble has been experienced for the past few months 
 in connexion with the balata trade, and British officers 
 have been keenly alert to prevent illicit trading. The 
 Governor is now at Lama, two days' journey from the 
 capital. He is expected to arrive here on Tuesday." 
 "Georgetown, British Guian.a, Aug. 28. 
 
 " The Governor has informed the Legislature that 
 Captain Calder, who recently crossed the Venezuelan 
 frontier and seized a quantity of balata which was 
 alleged to have been collected in British Guiana, violated 
 the frontier to the extent of 200 yards. The balata has 
 been returned to its owner and regret has been expressed 
 to President Castro." 
 
 "New York, Aug. 31. 
 
 " A message from Caracas states that the Venezuelan 
 Government considers that the incident which arose 
 out of the invasion of Venezuelan territory by Captain 
 Calder, District Inspector of Police in British Guiana,
 
 63 
 
 and the seizure of a quantity of balata said to have been 
 collected on British soil has been satisfactorily closed. 
 President Castro has received a note of apology from 
 the Governor of British Guiana with the announcement 
 that Inspector Calder has been relieved of his post." 
 
 51. A '' Sujet Mixter 
 
 Felix Brown was born in London of German parents 
 in 1875. He was brought up in English schools and 
 considered himself an Englishman, although he knew 
 that he was of German parentage and frequently went to 
 Germany to see his grandparents. In 1900 he was a 
 passenger on an English vessel destined for Riga. This 
 vessel called on her way at Stettin. While in that 
 harbour the German police boarded the vessel and 
 arrested Brown for having evaded military service in 
 Germany. Brown telegraphed to the English ambassa- 
 dor in Berlin and asked for his intervention. 
 
 52. Koreans at the Hague Peace Co7iference. 
 
 During the second Hague Peace Conference the 
 Emperor of Korea, although he had signed in 1904 a 
 treaty according to which Japan exercised a protectorate 
 over his country, dispatched an envoy and two secre- 
 taries to the Hague for the purpose of bringing some 
 complaints before the Congress. One of the secretaries 
 had been in Holland two years previously, and had left 
 the country without paying his debts. When his credi- 
 tors heard of his return, they asked an advocate whether 
 they could sue him, or whether he was exempted from 
 Dutch jurisdiction, since he now appeared as the secretary 
 of the Korean envoy.
 
 65 
 
 SECTION XIV 
 
 53. The Adventures of a South American 
 
 Physicimi. 
 
 In 1905 the President of a South American Republic 
 visited London with the intention of undergoing an 
 operation by a famous surgeon. He was accompanied, 
 among others, by Doctor Alcorta, his physician-in- 
 ordinary, who was watching the case. After dining with 
 friends one evening at a well-known restaurant, during 
 which he drank very freely of wine and liqueurs. Doctor 
 Alcorta proceeded to the Empire Theatre. He at first 
 listened quietly, but, being displeased by the song of 
 one of the performers, he became noisy, had to be re- 
 moved, and on proving violent was handed over to 
 the police. Next morning he was brought up before 
 a magistrate on the charge of having been drunk and 
 disorderly. 
 
 54. Extradition of a British Subject. 
 
 The following is a cutting from the police court 
 reports of a daily paper : 
 
 "At Bow-street, Julius Kuhliger, alias Nollier, 35, of 
 Field-road, Forest-gate, was again brought up before 
 Sir A. de Rutzen for extradition on the charge of obtain- 
 ing money by false pretences in Belgium. Mr H. Lewis 
 
 o. I. L. c
 
 67 
 
 defended. In consequence of certain complaints De- 
 tective-sergeant Brogden kept observation upon a news- 
 agent's shop in Shoreditch, and on the 2nd inst. he saw 
 the prisoner call there and receive several letters. He 
 followed the prisoner and saw him examine the contents, 
 and then arrested him. The letters were found to con- 
 tain four money orders of the total value of £6. js. \d., 
 and the prisoner was brought up at the Old-street Police- 
 court and charged with being in the unlawful possession 
 of them. It was afterwards discovered that the orders 
 were the proceeds of an alleged swindle in Belgium 
 which had been carried on from this country, and the 
 original charge was abandoned in favour of the extradi- 
 tion proceedings. Detective-sergeant Brogden now gave 
 evidence that the prisoner claimed to be a British sub- 
 ject, alleging that his mother was English, though his 
 father was a Swiss. Since his arrest he had made a 
 statement to the effect that about three months ago, 
 finding himself in financial difficulties, he thought he- 
 would embark upon a system of fraud. He advertised 
 in the German newspapers, he continued, stating that 
 an English lady wished to send her two daughters to 
 Germany for the purpose of learning the language of the 
 country. Several persons replied offering to take the 
 children, and he wrote to each of them accepting their 
 offer, and stating that the luggage had already been sent 
 on. He followed this by another letter purporting to 
 come from a firm of railwa\' carriers, saying that they 
 had been instructed to forward certain trunks, and would 
 do so on the receipt of their fees in advance. He arranged 
 for the replies to these letters to be sent to five or six 
 different newsagents' shoj)s in \;uiotis parts of London, 
 
 5—2
 
 69 
 
 and each place brought him in an average of about ;i^io. 
 The prisoner, on oath, now said that he was a British 
 subject, and Mr Lewis asked the magistrate to say that 
 this was not a case in which he ought to surrender the 
 prisoner to a foreign Power. The magistrate said that 
 with regard to the point raised as to the accused's being 
 a British subject, the article in the Treaty with Belgium 
 dealing with that matter said that ' in no case or on any 
 consideration whatever shall the high contracting parties 
 be bound to surrender their own subjects whether by 
 birth or naturalization.' It had been held that such pro- 
 vision implied that the high contracting parties might 
 surrender their own subjects, and that such surrender 
 must be left to the discretion of the Secretary of State. 
 He ordered the prisoner to be committed for extradition, 
 and it would be for the Home Secretary to decide 
 whether it was a case in which he ought not to sanction 
 the surrender." 
 
 55. The Case of the " Oldhamia.'' 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of Dec. 14th, 
 1908, dated St Petersburg, Dec. 13th: 
 
 " The Admiralty Appeal Court yesterday confirmed 
 the judgment of the Libau Prize Court justifying the 
 capture and destruction of the British steamer Oldhaniia, 
 bound for Hong-kong with American oil. She was 
 taken by the cruiser Oleg of Admiral Rozhdestvensky's 
 fleet off P'ormosa on the night of May 18, 1905, and 
 a fortnight later, while proceeding to Vladivostok, 
 struck on the Kurile reef and was burned by the prize 
 crew to prevent her from falling into the hands of the
 
 71 
 
 Japanese. The Court disallowed a claim for damages 
 by the captain and crew for the loss of their personal 
 effects on the formal (^rounds that the claim had not 
 been presented at the first hearing of the case. It 
 allowed a claim of the Standard Oil Company to 
 recover the cost of 200 empty kerosene cases. It con- 
 firmed the Libau verdict disallowing the claims of the 
 Manchester and Sal ford Company, the owners of the 
 vessel, for ^61,580, and those of the Standard Oil Com- 
 pany for cargo consisting of 149,462 cases of kerosene, 
 valued at $123,134 (^^24,627). 
 
 " The circumstances of the capture were fully detailed 
 at the trial before the Libau Prize Court on June 12, 
 1907. The arguments presented by Mr. Berlin, counsel 
 for the plaintiffs, and the law officers of the Crown, bore 
 first upon the prima facie evidence of the Oldliamia' s 
 destination and cargo, and secondly, on the point whether 
 kerosene rightly came under the Russian declaration of 
 contraband of war. It was admitted that the cargo was 
 intended for Japan, but solely for commercial purposes. 
 The principal legal adviser to the Admiralty submitted, 
 however, that kerosene was now used also as a fuel for 
 warships. Moreover, the vessel was considerably out of 
 her course. The captain was unable to produce the 
 charter-party or bills of lading, and one of the seamen 
 declared that she carried guns at the bottom of the hold. 
 Admiral Rozhdestvensky sent 300 sailors to displace 
 the cargo in order to verify this statement, but they 
 worked for two days without getting lower than the 
 main deck. Mr. Berlin invoked the fact that the Pro- 
 curator at Libau declined to recognize kerosene as contra- 
 band within the meaning of the Russian declaration.
 
 73 
 
 which specifically mentions naphtha. He argued at 
 length on the question of conditional and absolute con- 
 traband of war. Upon these points the Russian and 
 British views have been, and remain, at variance, as 
 exemplified in all the prize cases connected with the 
 late war. 
 
 " The result of the present appeal, however onerous to 
 the owners, cannot be regarded as unexpected. A mem- 
 ber of the Embassy staff attended the proceedings in 
 behalf of the British Government." 
 
 56. A 71 Avibassador s Estate. 
 
 Musurus Pasha, the Turkish ambassador in London, 
 died there in December 1907. In February, 1908, 
 Mme Musurus took out letters of administration in 
 England, and proceeded to pay the debts and the 
 death duties payable in respect of the property in this 
 country. The greater part of the ambassador's estate 
 was situated in Turkey and Thessaly, and the only 
 property in England was certain shares in companies. 
 Two of the next-of-kin of the ambassador brought (in 
 December 1908) an action to obtain the administration 
 of his estate and also an injunction restraining Mme 
 Musurus from removing aiu' ot the assets out of the 
 jurisdiction of the English courts, or from dealing with 
 them otherwise than in due ccjurse of administration.
 
 75 
 
 SECTION XV 
 
 57. Dangers of Ballooning. 
 
 On Nov. 24th, 1908, the following paragraph appeared 
 in the morning papers, dated from Breslau : 
 
 " While a balloon, belonging to the Silesian Aero- 
 nautic Club, was sailing along at about 100 metres 
 distance from the Russo-German frontier on Saturday- 
 over Krotoschin, Sarotschin, and Zockow, 15 shots were 
 fired at it from Russian territory, probably by frontier 
 Cossacks. The weather was fine and the German flag 
 hung from the envelope. Nobody was hurt, only one 
 shot striking a sandbag, and the balloon landed safely 
 on German soil." 
 
 58. Family Honour. 
 
 In February, 1906, Carlo Waddington, the son of the 
 Chilian envoy at Brussels, shot at and killed Balmaceda, 
 the secretary of the Chilian Legation. The cause of this 
 action was that Balmaceda refused to marry Wadding- 
 ton's sister, whom he had previously seduced.
 
 11 
 
 59. An Ocean Chase. 
 
 Recently in the Firth of Clyde the Fishery Board's 
 cruiser Vigilant observed a foreign trawler operating, it 
 was alleged, within the three-mile limit of Ailsa Craig. 
 The trawler made off, and a stern chase of over 20 miles, 
 lasting about two hours, followed. The Vigilant fired 
 several shots, to which the trawler paid no heed, but 
 ultimately the cruiser caught up the fugitive and com- 
 pelled her to stop. The mate of the Vigilant boarded 
 the trawler, the captain of which refused to accompany 
 the Vigilant to Campbeltown, and, after the officer had 
 obtained particulars of the boat and the crew, the trawler 
 left for Fleetwood with the week's catch. The Vigilant 
 proceeded to Campbeltown and reported the matter to 
 the Crown authorities. 
 
 60. The ''Maori Kmgr 
 
 The vessel, the Maori Kifig, was purchased in ]\Tarch, 
 1906, by Messrs. Ginsburg and Co., a Russian firm. To 
 enable the vessel to sail under the British flag, all the 
 shares in her were nominally transferred to a British 
 subject named Dow, who registered her in Shanghai as 
 a British-owned vessel. Subsequently she sailed under 
 the British flag from Vladivostok to Guaymos, in Mexico, 
 carrying 921 Chinese coolies and 217 Russians. In 
 January, 1908, the British consul-general in Shanghai 
 seized the vessel as liable to forfeiture under §§ 69 and 
 76 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.
 
 79 
 
 SECTION XVI 
 
 61. The Island of RakaJianga. 
 
 On Nov. 20th, 1908, the following paragraph appeared 
 in the papers : 
 
 " News has reached here that on July i last the 
 natives of Rakahanga, in the Cook group, hauled down 
 the British flag, and, after ejecting the island council, 
 appointed their own Government, judges and police. 
 The ringleader of the movement is a dismissed teacher 
 of the London Missionary Society." 
 
 62. A Complamt against the Police. 
 
 A policeman, stationed at the corner of Bond Street 
 and Oxford Street for the purpose of regulating traffic, 
 raises his hand as a sign for carriages coming from 
 Bond Street to stop. One of the drivers ignores this 
 sign and drives on. The policeman seizes the horse's 
 head and stops the carriage, whereupon a gentleman 
 within complains, maintaining that he is an ambassador 
 to the English Court ami that the police have no right 
 to stop him. x^s the policeman does not give way the 
 ambassador leaves his carriage and, going immediately 
 to the Foreign Office, complains of the violation of his 
 privileges and demands the punishment of the police- 
 man.
 
 8i 
 
 63. A Man with two Wives. 
 
 In 1900 Oscar Meyer, a German by birth, who is 
 naturalised in England without having ceased to be 
 a German subject, marries an Englishwoman in London. 
 In the following year he obtains a judicial separation 
 from his wife. As his marriage was never known in 
 Germany, he succeeds in 1902, while staying in BerHn, 
 in marrying his niece, whom he brings back to England 
 as his wife. In 1905 the niece finds out that Meyer was 
 already a married man when he married her, and has 
 him arrested for bigamy. 
 
 64. Murdei' on a iMail Boat. 
 
 The Marie Hoiriette is one of those mail boats plying 
 between Ostend and Dover which are the property of 
 the Belgian government and are commanded by Belgian 
 naval officers. On the 25th July, 1900, an Italian on 
 board murdered an English fellow-passenger on the 
 voyage between Ostend and Dover, within three miles 
 of the latter port. On the arrival of the vessel the 
 captain handed over the murderer to the English police 
 authorities, but a few days later the Belgian government 
 claimed the extradition of the criminal. 
 
 o. I. L.
 
 ^3 
 
 SECTION xvn 
 
 65. Persian Disoi'ders. 
 
 The following telegrams, dated from Bushire, appeared 
 in the papers on April 12th, 1909: 
 
 "■April \oth. 
 " In view of the sense of insecurity caused by the 
 looting of the Tangistani tribesmen, who will not submit 
 to any control, his Majesty's cruiser Fox to-day landed 
 a party of bluejackets who are guarding the place. The 
 Tangistanis are now leaving the district." 
 
 "■April wth. 
 
 " Before the bluejackets landed from the cruiser Fox 
 yesterday, the British Resident in the Persian Gulf issued 
 a proclamation informing the public that the measure 
 had been forced upon the British authorities in the 
 absence of any authority able to control the Tangistanis 
 or guarantee the safety of British and other foreign 
 subjects. The proclamation added that the bluejackets 
 were being landed solely for the purpose of protecting 
 foreigners and would be withdrawn as soon as security 
 was assured." 
 
 On April 27th the following appeared in the Times 
 from Teheran : 
 
 " The advance guard of the Russian expedition to 
 Tabriz left the frontier yesterday. The main body 
 marched this morning. The force numbers 2,600, and 
 consists of four squadrons of Cossacks, two batteries of 
 
 6—2
 
 85 
 
 horse artillery, three battalions of infantry, and a com- 
 pany of pioneers, escorting a large train of provisions. 
 
 " The commander of the troops has stringent orders 
 to preserve a pacific attitude, and it is expected that he 
 will halt some distance outside Tabriz, which he will not 
 enter except in case of necessity. 
 
 " The Russian and British Legations will to-morrow 
 jointly notify the Persian Government of the action 
 taken and of the motives which prompted the despatch 
 of an armed force into Persian territory." 
 
 66. The Expulsion of Monsieta^ de Reus. 
 
 The following appeared in the papers of July 22nd, 
 1908, dated Caracas, July 21st: 
 
 " President Castro has expelled M. J. H, de Reus, 
 the Dutch Minister Resident here. Dr. Paul, Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs, sent his passports to M. de Reus 
 with a note informing him that, in view of the opinions 
 expressed by M. de Reus in a letter written on April 9th, 
 President Castro declares him to be incompetent to serve 
 as a friendly medium in the relations between Venezuela 
 and the Netherlands. 
 
 " The letter referred to is probably M. de Reus's 
 reply to President Castro's demand that Holland should 
 exercise more effectual vigilance over Dutch vessels 
 plying between La Guaira and Curacao, in which Vene- 
 zuelan revolutionaries frequently effect their escape 
 under assumed names. This preceded the trouble 
 caused by the closing of the port of Curacao to Vene- 
 zuelan shipping on account of plague at La Guaira."
 
 87 
 
 67. The Case of McLeod. 
 
 Alexander McLeod was a member of the British 
 force sent by the Canadian government in 1837 into 
 the territory of the United States for the purpose of 
 capturing the Caroline, which vessel had been equipped 
 for crossing into Canadian territory and taking help to 
 the Canadian insurgents. In 1841 McLeod came on 
 business into the State of New York, and was arrested 
 and indicted for the killing of one Amos Durfee, a 
 citizen of the United States, on the occasion of the 
 capture of the Carolhie. 
 
 68. A Thwarted Suicide. 
 
 While the Fran ElizabetJi, a German tramp steamer, 
 is on the high seas during a voyage between New York 
 and Hamburg, a sailor, Heinrich Kalke, jumps over- 
 board with the intention of drowning himself. Another 
 sailor leaps into the sea after him in the hope of saving 
 Kalke's life. He succeeds in getting hold of the man, 
 but Kalke struggles and, being unable to free himself, 
 draws a knife and stabs the sailor, who thereupon sinks. 
 While the struggle is in progress the vessel slackens 
 speed, a boat is lowered, and its occupants succeed in 
 securing Kalke. He is taken on board, conveyed to 
 Hamburg, and there put on his trial for murder. Counsel 
 for defence asserts that Germany does not possess juris- 
 diction, as the act was committed, not on a vessel sailing 
 under the German flag, but in the sea itself, and as, 
 according to ^ 4, No. 3 of the German criminal code,
 
 89 
 
 a German can only be punished in Germany for an act 
 committed abroad, if the act concerned is punishable 
 both by the law of Germany and by that of the country 
 where the act was committed. 
 
 SECTION XVIII 
 
 69. An Instdt to an Ambassador. 
 
 The following appeared in the papers, dated St. 
 Petersburg, Feb. 4th, 1908 : 
 
 " M. Bompard, the French Ambassador, regarding a 
 recent paragraph in the Graahdanin as insulting, has 
 addressed himself to M. Isvolsky, Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs, complaining that the statement in question was 
 directed against himself in his capacity of representative 
 of the French Republic in Russia. He therefore asks 
 for the protection of the Imperial Government. Since 
 the Press laws contain no provision for the criminal 
 prosecution of newspapers for insults offered to repre- 
 sentatives of friendly Powers, a decree has been issued 
 whereby the Prefect of St Petersburg, in virtue of the 
 powers conferred upon him under the law on 'extra- 
 ordinary protection,' has inflicted upon the editor of the 
 Grazhdanin a fine of 1,000 roubles (^100). 
 
 70. A Question of Legitimacy. 
 
 Edward Wolff, a German subject, domiciled in 
 England since i860, goes to Germany in 1870 for the 
 purpose of there marrying his niece. He at once returns
 
 91 
 
 to England with his bride, and becomes naturalized in 
 1 87 1. His wife dies in 1873 in giving birth to a son. 
 In 1875 he marries an Englishwoman in London. As 
 the result of this marriage a second son is born in 1876. 
 In 1900 Wolff dies without leaving a will, six months 
 after the death of his second wife. The son of the second 
 wife claims the whole of his father's estate, maintaining 
 that the first marriage of his father was invalid and that 
 therefore his step-brother, being illegitimate, could not 
 inherit. 
 
 71. The Coaclwian of an Envoy. 
 
 In 1827 a coachman of Mr. Gallatin, the American 
 minister in London, committed an assault outside the 
 embassy. He was arrested in the stable of the embassy 
 and charged before a local magistrate. The British 
 Foreign Office refused to recognise the exemption of the 
 coachman from the local jurisdiction. 
 
 72. The Case of SchnaebeU. 
 
 On April 21st, 1887, Schnaebele, the Commissionary 
 of Police of Pagny-sur-Moselle, crossed the German 
 frontier on official business, for the settlement i)f which 
 he was invited to a meeting bv the local German 
 functionaries. He was, however, at once arrested on 
 a warrant for being concerned with the organization of 
 espionage.
 
 93 
 
 SECTION XIX 
 
 73. Amelia Island. 
 
 Amelia Island, at the mouth of St Mary's River, in 
 Florida, was, in 1817, seized by a number of adventurers 
 under the command of one McGregor, who, in the name 
 of the insurgent colonies of Buenos Ayres and Venezuela, 
 preyed not only on the commerce of Spain but also 
 on that of the United States. The island was, at that 
 time, part of Spanish territory ; and as the Spanish 
 government was not able to put an end to the nuisance 
 created to the United States by the seizure, the latter 
 ordered a man-of-war to expel McGregor and his men 
 from Amelia Island, to destroy their works and vessels, 
 and to take possession of the island for the purpose of 
 preventing the recurrence of the nuisance. 
 
 74, Representation to China. 
 
 On Jan. 15th, 1909, after the dismissal of Yuan-Shih- 
 Kai, the British and the American diplomatic envoys at 
 Peking called by appointment on Prince Ching, who, as 
 president of the Grand Council and the W'ai-wu-pu, is 
 the highest official of the Chinese Empire. The purpose 
 of the appointment was to make a joint representation 
 on the part of the two powers regarding the dismissal, 
 without any given reason, of Yuan-Shih-Kai, whose 
 services to the cause of order, stability, and progress 
 in China had inspired such confidence in their two 
 govern inents.
 
 95 
 
 75. Exemption from Rates. 
 
 The following appeared in the Times, Dec. 9th, 1908 : 
 
 "The claim of Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, a 
 German Embassy official, to be exempt from rates in 
 respect of his residence at Walton-on-Thames was before 
 the urban council last night. 
 
 " A letter was read from the Rating of Government 
 Property Department of the Treasury stating that houses 
 occupied by representatives of foreign Powers and the 
 accredited members of their suites were liable to assess- 
 ment in common with other property of the country, but 
 as their persons and personal effects were by inter- 
 national law exempt from seizure if they refused to pay 
 rates these could not be enforced against them by 
 process of law. Reciprocal arrangements had, however, 
 been entered into with certain Powers, Germany being 
 one of them, under which a contribution in lieu of rates 
 was given by tiie Government to local authorities in 
 respect of such occupations. 
 
 "The Walton Council, in common, it is believed, with 
 many other local authorities in the country, had held the 
 view that it was impossible to recover rates under such 
 circumstances, but their attention was drawn to the 
 present case by the Local Government Board auditor, at 
 whose suggestion they wrote to the Treasur}', with the 
 above result."
 
 97 
 
 76. Errant Balloons. 
 
 The following notice from Berlin appeared in the 
 morning papers of November 20th, 1908 : 
 
 " The French Ambassador has drawn the attention 
 of the Imperial Government to the repeated landing of 
 German balloons on French territory in view of the 
 possibility of unpleasant incidents arising therefrom. 
 The German military authorities are accordingly taking 
 the necessary measures to prevent as far as possible the 
 future landing of German balloons across the frontier." 
 
 SECTION XX 
 
 77. Sully in England. 
 
 In 1603 Sully, who was sent by Henri IV of France 
 on a special mission to the English Court, called together 
 a French jury in London, and had a member of his 
 retinue condemned to death for murder. The convicted 
 man was handed over for execution to the English 
 authorities, but James I granted him a reprieve. 
 
 o. I. L.
 
 99 
 
 78. Homicide by an AttacJid. 
 
 The attache of an embassy in Paris during a dispute 
 with his servant draws a revolver and shoots him dead. 
 His government orders him home, but he refuses to 
 obey, leaves the embassy, and settles down in Paris. 
 Thereupon his government demands his extradition from 
 France. 
 
 How would the case have to be decided if the 
 murderer has fled to England and (i) his home state 
 requires his extradition. (2) both PVance and his home 
 state require his extradition } 
 
 79. A Dispiited Capture. 
 
 On July 14th, 1805, during the war between Great 
 Britain and Spain, the British privateer Minerva cap- 
 tured the Spanish vessel Anna, near the mouth of the 
 river Mississippi. When brought before the British 
 prize court in November, 1805, the United States claimed 
 the captured vessel, on the ground that the capture was 
 effected within the American territorial maritime belt. 
 From the evidence brought forward it appeared that the 
 Anna was captured at a spot five miles from the main- 
 land, but that there were several small mud islands com- 
 posed of earth and trees, which had drifted down the 
 river and had fixed themselves more than two miles off 
 the shore.
 
 lOI 
 
 80. The Punishuicnt for Murder. 
 
 In 1905 Henry Johnson, an English subject, com- 
 mits a murder in London but succeeds in escaping. In 
 1906 he appears in Rome under the name of Charles 
 Waiter and commits a murder there also. Durinij his 
 trial at Rome his real name and antecedents are dis- 
 closed and reported in England. As the Italian penal 
 code does not provide capital punishment and he is 
 therefore only condemned to penal servitude for life, the 
 question is raised in the English Press whether England 
 could not demand the extradition of the murderer, so 
 that he might be tried and executed in England for the 
 murder committed there. 
 
 SECTION XXI 
 
 81. A Traitor s Fate. 
 
 In 1670 Frederick William, the great elector of 
 Brandenburg, ordered his diplomatic envoy at Warsaw, 
 the capital of Poland, to obtain possession of the person of 
 one Colonel von Kalkstein, a Prussian subject, who had 
 fled to Poland for political reasons, as he was accused of 
 high treason. Von Kalkstein having been seized secretly 
 on November 28th, 1670, was wrapped up in a carpet and 
 in this way carried across the frontier and beheaded at 
 Memel.
 
 I03 
 
 82. An Interrupted Armistice. 
 
 During a war between states A and B, a general 
 armistice is concluded, without detailed stipulations. 
 The commander of the forces of state A is informed 
 through spies that the enemy is throwing up defences 
 within the line where the forces face each other and is 
 concentrating twice as many troops in that place as 
 had been there before the conclusion of the armistice. 
 This he considers a violation of the armistice, and, fear- 
 ing an attack, at once recommences hostilities, without 
 any previous denunciation of the armistice. 
 
 83. Shooting Affray in a Legation. 
 
 In 1867 Nikitschenkow, a Russian subject not be- 
 longing to the Russian Legation, attacked and wounded 
 a member of that Legation within the precincts of the 
 embassy in Paris. The French police were called in 
 and arrested the criminal. The Russian government 
 requested his extradition, maintaining that, as the crime 
 was committed inside the Russian embassy, it fell exclu- 
 sively within Russian jurisdiction.
 
 I05 
 
 84. The Surrender of Port Arthur. 
 
 In January, 1905, the Russian general Stossel, the 
 commander of Port Arthur, while negotiating with the 
 Japanese for the surrender of that fortress, ordered some 
 fortifications to be blown up and certain Russian men- 
 of-war in the harbour to be sunk. 
 
 SECTION XXII 
 
 85. An A7nbassado7' s Brother. 
 
 In 1653 Don Pantaleon Sa, the brother of the 
 Portuguese ambassador in London and a member of 
 his suite, killed an Englishman named Greenway. He 
 was arrested by the English authorities, tried, found 
 guilty, and executed.
 
 I07 
 
 86. A Detained Steatner. 
 
 In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese war, the Captai7i 
 W. Menzel, a German steamer, took in Welsh coal at 
 Cardiff, with the intention of carrying it to the Russian 
 fleet en route for the Far East. The English govern- 
 ment detained the steamer. Could Germany have 
 complained and asked for damages ? 
 
 87. Prussia and the Poles. 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of Dec. 2nd, 
 1907, dated Vienna, Dec. ist and 2nd respectively : 
 
 " A mass meeting took place to-day at Lemberg, the 
 capital of Galicia, to protest against the Polish policy of 
 Prussia and Prince Billow's Expropriation Bill. Some 
 10,000 persons were present. In a much applauded 
 address, the vice-burgomaster condemned Prince Billow's 
 action and called upon the Polish representatives in 
 the forthcoming A ustro- Hungarian Delegations to vote 
 against the Foreign Office estimates. After the meet- 
 ing, the police prevented an attempt to make a demon- 
 stration against the German Imperial Consulate. The 
 demonstrators carried large caricatures of the Emperor 
 William, Prince Bulow, and Baron von Aehrenthal." 
 
 "To-day's reports show yesterday's anti- Prussian 
 demonstration at Lemberg to have been accompanied 
 by some excesses. After the meeting a number of 
 demonstrators succeeded in breaking through the cordon 
 of police and in reaching the hotel where the German
 
 I09 
 
 Consul has hitherto lived. Several windows were 
 smashed, and, in order to avoid an attack upon the 
 hotel, the hotel-keeper declared that he had already 
 given the Consul notice to quit and that the Consul had 
 departed. The proposal of a student that no inhabitant 
 of Lemberg should give the German Consul shelter on 
 pain of being considered a traitor to the Polish cause 
 was enthusiastically acclaimed. A caricature of the 
 Emperor William was attached to the end of a rod and 
 burned." 
 
 88. A Charmed Life. 
 
 The following appeared in a London evening paper: 
 
 " In the list dealt with by Mr Plowden yesterday at 
 Marylebone was a charge against an Italian footman 
 named Pito Conziani, aged twenty-four, giving an 
 address in Grosvenor-square, who was accused of being 
 found drunk and disorderly and using bad language the 
 previous night in Old Quebec-street. 
 
 " When the case was reached the accused came for- 
 ward from a seat at the back of the Court and was 
 placed in front of the dock. 
 
 " A consultation immediately took place between the 
 clerk and the magistrate, and as a result Mr Plowden 
 inquired who the accused was. 
 
 " Inspector Grace replied that he was, as he repre- 
 sented, in the service of the Italian Ambassador, and he 
 claimed privilege. 
 
 " Mr Plowden told tlie accused he bore a charmed 
 life in this country in certain respects, and ordered him 
 to be discharged."
 
 1 1 1 
 
 SECTION XXIII 
 
 89. A Daring Robbery. 
 
 On July 15th, 1907, the papers published the 
 following : 
 
 " Last night the steamer Sophia was seized by armed 
 robbers 16 miles from Odessa, while on a voyage from 
 this port to Korthion. At 1 1 o'clock three young men 
 appeared on the deck, where the captain and the passen- 
 gers were at supper, and held them in check while two 
 others seized the man at the wheel and ordered him, 
 under threat of death, to set the ship's course for Odessa. 
 Some of the robbers, who appear to have numbered 18 
 in all, then went into the first-class saloon, where they 
 took possession of an iron cash-box containing 50,000 
 roubles (,^5,000), which was in charge of a cashier of the 
 Russian Bank for Foreign Trade. They also took 1,000 
 roubles {£\o6) belonging to the passengers. The robbers 
 then proceeded to disable the engines, and let off all 
 the steam, and finally made their escape in two of the 
 Sophia's boats after destroying the third. The police 
 are seeking to trace the band, but hitherto without 
 success."
 
 113 
 
 90. The Fall of Abdul Hamid. 
 
 On April 29th, 1909, after the fall of Abdul Hamid 
 and the enthronement of Mohammed V, the President of 
 the United States of America sent the following telegram 
 to the new ruler of Turkey : 
 
 " I offer your Majesty my congratulations on your 
 accession to the Throne with such universal acclaim 
 voiced by the people's representatives and at a time so 
 propitious to the highest aspirations of the great nation 
 over which you rule as the august head of a constitu- 
 tional Government. I assure you of the friendship of 
 the Government and people of the United States, who 
 earnestly wish for your Majesty's happiness and for that 
 of the people within your dominions, and I add my own 
 wishes for your Majesty's health and welfare." 
 
 91. A President Abroad. 
 
 The Times of Dec. 4th, 1908, contained the following 
 telegram, dated Paris, Dec. 3rd : 
 
 " The French Government will come to a decision at 
 the Cabinet Council to be held on Saturday as to the 
 conditions upon which President Castro, the despot of 
 Venezuela, will be allowed to land in France. At the 
 moment of his departure for Europe it was reported that 
 the object of the President's journey was to see a dis- 
 tinguished specialist with a view to a surgical operation. 
 Since then, however, trustworth)- information has reached 
 the Quai d'Orsay to the effect that his state of health is 
 
 o. 1. L. 8
 
 Its 
 
 not so precarious as it had been reported to be, and that 
 he looks forward to receiving in Paris the hospitahty to 
 which South Americans are accustomed. If that be the 
 case, there are serious reasons for believing that he 
 will meet with disappointment. The relations between 
 France and Venezuela have been suspended now for 
 several years, and the French representative at Caracas, 
 it will be remembered, was expelled from Venezuela. 
 The French Foreign Office is at present engaged in pre- 
 paring a statement of its grievances against President 
 Castro, to serve as a basis for the discussion in the next 
 Cabinet Council of the delicate questions raised by the 
 Dictator's decision to visit this country." 
 
 Again, the Times of Dec. nth contained the follow- 
 ing, dated Paris, Dec. loth: 
 
 " President Castro landed in France this morning 
 from the steamer Guadeloupe at Pauillac, where he was 
 met by the Venezuelan Consul at Genoa and a dozen or 
 more friends. He took a special train from Bordeaux, 
 and on arriving with his wife, brother, three doctors, and 
 six servants, he allowed himself to be photographed, 
 subsequently driving to the Hotel de France. On 
 reaching the hotel he received a visit from M. Gout, 
 a high official at the Ouai d'Orsay, who had been 
 specially despatched by the Minister for Foreign Affairs 
 to inform President Castro of the conditions on which 
 the Government has allowed him to land in France, and 
 on which he will be permitted to stay here. The Govern- 
 ment has refused to reveal the details of the decision at 
 which it arrived in the Cabinet Cmmcil of last Saturday 
 as to its treatment of the Venezuelan President. He 
 declared to the representative of the French Foreign 
 
 8 — 2
 
 117 
 
 Office that he had come to Europe as a mere private 
 individual to see a doctor, but a semi-official note com- 
 municated this evening states that ' it is believed that 
 he will take advantage of his stay to try to settle his 
 affairs with the various Powers which no longer have 
 agents accredited to his Government.' 
 
 " There is reason to believe that this very guarded 
 and somewhat enigmatical statement marks the definite 
 decision of the French Government to demand from 
 President Castro a complete settlement of all the ques- 
 tions outstanding between him and this country. It is 
 felt that while France cannot repudiate her traditions of 
 hospitality, she has nevertheless seized this opportunity 
 to make it quite clear to the President that any pro- 
 longation of his sojourn here must depend on his 
 meeting the views of the French Government." 
 
 92. A Rejected Ambassador. 
 
 In 1885 Italy refused to receive Mr. Keilly as 
 ambassador of the United States of America, because he 
 had, in 1871, protested against the annexation of the 
 Papal States. And when the United States sent the 
 same gentleman as ambassador to Austria, the latter 
 refused him reception, on the ground that his wife was 
 said to be a Jewess.
 
 119 
 
 SECTION XXIV 
 
 93. Revidualling of a Fortress. 
 
 During a war between states A and B, a general 
 armistice is concluded for thirty days, without any 
 detailed stipulations. The commander of a besieged 
 fortress claims the right of re-victualling, but the com- 
 mander of the besieging forces refuses this. The be- 
 sieged commander considers this refusal a violation of 
 the armistice and threatens to denounce it unless the 
 besieging commander complies with his request. 
 
 94. Dutch Reprisals. 
 
 In consequence of the dispute which had arisen 
 between Holland and Venezuela in 1908 — see the case 
 of the Expulsion of M. de Reus, above p. 85 — the Dutch 
 government sent some cruisers into Venezuelan waters 
 with the intention of resorting to reprisals. Accordingly 
 the Dutch cruiser Geldcrland captured on Saturday, 
 Dec. 1 2th, 190S, the Venezuelan coastguard 's\\\^ Alexis 
 outside Puerto Cabcllo. The captain of the Alexis was 
 put ashore at Puerto Cabello, and he forwarded to his 
 government at Caracas the following communication 
 handed to him by the officer of the Geldcrland who 
 boarded his vessel :
 
 121 
 
 '"'' December 12. 
 " Her Majesty the Queen of Holland has given orders 
 to her warships temporarily to sequestrate and place an 
 embargo upon all vessels of the Venezuelan Govern- 
 ment. This is a retaliatory measure. We demand that 
 you lower your flag and surrender your ship and your 
 persons to the commander of the Gelderland. All re- 
 sistance will be useless. If you resist the result will be 
 the loss of your vessel and the death of many of you. 
 " Second Lieutenant Boinar." 
 
 95. Birth on the High Seas. 
 
 An Englishwoman gives birth to an illegitimate 
 child on board a German liner while on the high seas on 
 a voyage to New York. The child's father is German. 
 What is the nationality of the child .'' 
 
 96. A High-handed Action. 
 
 On the 15th of March, 1804, Napoleon, though at 
 peace with Baden, sent a body of troops into the territory 
 of this state for the purpose of surprising the castle of 
 Ettenheim and of carrying off the Duke of Enghien. 
 The Duke was brought to the castle of Vincennes, near 
 Paris, and the same night was tried by court martial 
 on the charge of high treason for having borne arms 
 against France. He was convicted, and was shot on 
 the following morning. 
 
 8-5
 
 123 
 
 SECTION XXV 
 
 97. " The SotttJiern Queens 
 
 During an insurrection on an island belonging to 
 state A, the Southern Qiieeji, a vessel sailing under the 
 flag of state B with a cargo of ammunition and carrying 
 a number of individuals desirous of joining the insur- 
 gents, is on her way to a port in the island concerned. 
 State A, receiving information of the matter, orders a 
 man-of-war to be on the look out for the vessel and to 
 seize her. The order is carried out on the high seas, 
 150 miles away from the island. 
 
 98. A Three-cornered Dispute. 
 
 In April, 1893, the Viceroy Li Hung Chang granted 
 the exclusive right of the free importation of grain into 
 Tien-Tsin to the China Merchants Steamship Naviga- 
 tion Company. England protested against this monopoly, 
 because it was contrary to Article 3 of the Treaty of 
 Commerce between China and the United States, the 
 benefits of which England could claim in consequence 
 of the most favoured nation clause in her own treaties 
 with China. The Chinese government answered that 
 the United States had, by passing the Chinese Exclusion 
 Act, broken the commercial treaty concerned, that there- 
 fore the treaty had come to an end, and that no one 
 could, under the most favoured nation clause, claim any 
 longer the benefits of a treaty which had ceased to exist. 
 (See Lehr, in the Revue de Droit International et de 
 Legislation Comparce, Vol. xx\". (1893), P- S^S-)
 
 125 
 
 99. Russian Revolutionary Outrage in Paris. 
 
 The following appeared in the Times of May loth, 
 1909: 
 
 " A Russian, who described himself as Colonel von 
 Kotten, chief of the Moscow secret police, was shot at 
 yesterday by an escaped Russian convict, Michael 
 Vitkoff, at an hotel in the Rue Bolivar, where the two 
 men met by appointment. According to the police 
 officer's story, Vitkoff was a Polish revolutionary who 
 had been sentenced to deportation to Siberia, but who 
 had been reprieved upon volunteering to act as a police 
 spy on the movements of his revolutionary comrades. 
 Vitkofif subsequently came to Paris, and upon the arrival 
 of the police officer in the French capital a few days ago 
 he induced Colonel von Kotten to visit him upon the 
 pretext that he had important information to communi- 
 cate. No sooner had the officer entered Vitkoff's room 
 than the latter fired several shots at him with a revolver, 
 none of which, however, took effect. A hand-to-hand 
 struggle followed, in which Vitkoff was worsted. The 
 man succeeded in making his escape, but gave himself 
 up at the nearest police station, where he told his story, 
 which was confirmed by Colonel von Kotten, who arrived 
 shortly afterwards little the worse for his experience. 
 Vitkofif was taken into custody and will be charged with 
 attempted murder. 
 
 " Minute details of the attack upon Colonel von 
 Kotten are published, but they shed little or no light
 
 127 
 
 upon the motives of the aggression. In some quarters 
 it is suggested that, unless Vitkoff's action was purely 
 personal, it may have been dictated by a desire on the 
 part of the Russian revolutionaries to secure by means 
 of a judicial trial in France the publicity which even the 
 Azefif and Feodoroff cases have failed to gain for their 
 efforts to expose the activity of the Russian secret 
 police." 
 
 100. TJie Detention of Napoleon I. 
 
 The question is frequently discussed whether the 
 detention of Napoleon I at St Helena was or was not 
 in accordance with international law. The facts of the 
 case are as follows : After having abdicated the throne 
 of France in favour of his son, Napoleon thought of 
 taking refuge in America, and therefore set out for the 
 port of Rochefort. Arriving there on July 3rd, 181 5, he 
 found the harbour watched by a British fleet. After 
 some days of deliberation he made up his mind to throw 
 himself on the mercy of the English people, and there- 
 fore on July 13th he wrote to the Prince Regent that he 
 came to take his seat at the hearth of the British people 
 and that he placed himself under the protection of the 
 British laws. On July 15th he went on board the 
 English ship the Bctlcrophon and gave himself into the 
 charge of her captain, by whom he was conveyed to 
 England. On August 7th Napoleon was removed to 
 H.M.S. Noyt/unnberlaiui, and the commander was in- 
 structed to convey him, together with a suite of twenty- 
 five persons, to the island of St Helena. He arrived on
 
 129 
 
 Oct. 17th and remained there a prisoner of state up to 
 the day of his death on May 5th, 1821. 
 
 In transporting and detaining Napoleon Great Britain 
 carried out a mandate of the allied powers, for three 
 identical conventions concerning the detention of Na- 
 poleon were signed at Paris on August 2nd, 18 15, by the 
 representatives of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and 
 Russia. The important stipulations of the conventions 
 — see Martens, ^V. R. Ii. p. 605 — are the two following : 
 
 ''Art. I. Napoleon Bonaparte est regarde par les 
 Puissances qui ont signe le traitc du 25 mars dernier 
 comme Leur prisonnier. 
 
 " Aj^t. If. Son garde est specialement confiee au 
 Gouvernement Britannique. Le choix du lieu et celui 
 des mesures qui peuvent le mieux assurer le but de 
 la presente stipulation sont reserves a Sa Majeste 
 Britannique." 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: rRINlKD HY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
 
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