International Incidents for Discussion in Conversation Classes Part 4

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 ma.s.sacred by the natives, and no 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 question 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 Attache's Chauffeur._

In November, 1908, the driver to the Military Attache at the United States Emba.s.sy 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it was very embarra.s.sing to have a servant charged with an offence against English law, and asking that the charge be withdrawn.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 12 and costs.

50. _In Quest of Balata._

The following notices appeared in the papers in the latter part of August, 1907, concerning a frontier incident 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 GUIANA, _Aug._ 28.

"The Governor has informed the Legislature that Captain Calder, who recently crossed the Venezuelan frontier and seized a quant.i.ty 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, and the seizure of a quant.i.ty 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 Mixte."_

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 pa.s.senger 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 amba.s.sador in Berlin and asked for his intervention.

52. _Koreans at the Hague Peace Conference._

During the second Hague Peace Conference the Emperor of Korea, although he had signed in 1904 a treaty according to which j.a.pan exercised a protectorate over his country, dispatched an envoy and two secretaries 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 creditors 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.

SECTION XIV

53. _The Adventures of a South American Physician._

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 removed, 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 obtaining money by false pretences in Belgium. Mr H. Lewis defended. In consequence of certain complaints Detective-sergeant Brogden kept observation upon a newsagent's shop in Sh.o.r.editch, 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 contain four money orders of the total value of 6. 7_s._ 1_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 extradition proceedings.

Detective-sergeant Brogden now gave evidence that the prisoner claimed to be a British subject, 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 railway 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' shops in various parts of London, and each place brought him in an average of about 10. 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 provision 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 _Oldhamia_, bound fur Hong-kong with American oil. She was taken by the cruiser _Oleg_ of Admiral Rozhdestvensky's fleet off Formosa 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 j.a.panese. The Court disallowed a claim for damages by the captain and crew for the loss of their personal effects on the formal grounds 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 confirmed the Libau verdict disallowing the claims of the Manchester and Salford Company, the owners of the vessel, for 61,580, and those of the Standard Oil Company for cargo consisting of 149,462 cases of kerosene, valued at $123,134 (24,627).

"The circ.u.mstances 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 _Oldhamia'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 j.a.pan, but solely for commercial purposes. The princ.i.p.al 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 verity this statement, but they worked for two days without getting lower than the main deck. Mr. Berlin invoked the fact that the Procurator at Libau declined to recognize kerosene as contraband within the meaning of the Russian declaration, which specifically mentions naphtha. He argued at length on the question of conditional and absolute contraband 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 member of the Emba.s.sy staff attended the proceedings in behalf of the British Government."

56. _An Amba.s.sadors Estate._

Musurus Pasha, the Turkish amba.s.sador 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 amba.s.sador'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 amba.s.sador brought (in December 1908) an action to obtain the administration of his estate and also an injunction restraining Mme Musurus from removing any of the a.s.sets out of the jurisdiction of the English courts, or from dealing with them otherwise than in due course of administration.

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 Aeronautic Club, was sailing along at about 100 metres distance from the Russo-German frontier on Sat.u.r.day 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. n.o.body 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 Waddington's sister, whom he had previously seduced.

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 compelled 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.