International Incidents for Discussion in Conversation Classes Part 2

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 Amba.s.sador in Washington and the Canadian Government. Ten thousand dollars damages are claimed."

24. _Russian 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, Seign.o.bos, and others, urging them to refuse the extradition of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Bromar Va.s.silieff, who killed the Prefect of Police of Penza in January, 1906.

The address declares the deed of Bromar Va.s.silieff 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated M. Sipiagin and M. Plehve. Sweden refused to give up Tcherniak, accused of having partic.i.p.ated in the attempt 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 Belentsoff, who before his trial died from flogging 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 n.o.ble tradition by allowing Bromar Va.s.silieff to be extradited."

SECTION VII

25. _A Conversion at Sea._

On July 4th and 6th, 1904, during the Russo-j.a.panese war, the _Peterburg_ and the _Smolensk_, vessels belonging to the Russian volunteer fleet in the Black Sea, pa.s.sed the Turkish Straits, flying the Russian commercial flag. They likewise pa.s.sed the Suez Ca.n.a.l 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.

26. _A Frontier Affray._

On May 12th, 1908, the _Pet.i.te Republique_ 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 quant.i.ties 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 smugglers. 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 mountains leaving several dead, including two women. Several of the soldiers on both sides were either killed or wounded.

27. _General Vukot.i.tch._

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 Vukot.i.tch, a Montenegrin envoy, was charged with a special mission for Belgrade by Prince Nicholas. He travelled to his destination 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 baggage was completely ransacked. He told the _Gendarmerie_ officers his name, explained his _status_, and showed them the pa.s.sport 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 Anglo-French Burglar._

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 England. 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.

SECTION VIII

29. _Signals of Distress._

Vattel (III. -- 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 Niet.i.tsch, 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 afterwards 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 Niet.i.tsch, 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 Niet.i.tsch 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?

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 pa.s.sing fly and enters it with the fugitive, but is overtaken by the police.

Thereupon 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 pa.s.senger 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?

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 containing 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 policemen 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 n.o.body 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 hubs into the soil, somebody will come across it and the patient gendarmes, and begin asking questions.

Meantime the little comedy has already cost the French munic.i.p.ality of Mont Saint-Martin more than 1,000 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 pa.s.sed since the van reached the frontier, there seems no particular reason for expecting a speedy conclusion to the farce."

34. _A Question of Annexation._

Karl Abel, born in Na.s.sau in 1840, left that country in 1865 for England for the purpose of settling there in business. In 1866 Na.s.sau 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. _Disputed Fisheries._

An island rises in the open sea three and a half miles from the sh.o.r.e 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?

36. _Imperial Coasting Trade._