International Incidents for Discussion in Conversation Classes Part 8

SECTION XXV

97. _"The Southern Queen."_

During an insurrection on an island belonging to state A, the _Southern Queen_, a vessel sailing under the flag of state B with a cargo of ammunition and carrying a number of individuals desirous of joining the insurgents, 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 Navigation 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 pa.s.sing the Chinese Exclusion Act, broken the commercial treaty concerned, that therefore 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 Comparee_, Vol. XXV.

(1893), p. 313.)

99. _Russian Revolutionary Outrage in Paris._

The following appeared in the _Times_ of May 10th, 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.

Vitkoff 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 communicate. 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. Vitkoff 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 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 Azeff and Feodoroff cases have failed to gain for their efforts to expose the activity of the Russian secret police."

100. _The 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, 1815, 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 therefore 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 _Bellerophon_ 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. _Northumberland_, and the commander was instructed to convey him, together with a suite of twenty-five persons, to the island of St Helena. He arrived on 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 Napoleon were signed at Paris on August 2nd, 1815, by the representatives of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia. The important stipulations of the conventions--see Martens, _N.R._ II. p. 605--are the two following:

"_Art. I._ Napoleon Bonaparte est regarde par les Puissances qui ont signe le traite du 25 mars dernier comme Leur prisonnier.

"_Art. II._ Son garde est specialement confiee au Gouvernement Britannique. Le choix du lieu et celui des mesures qui peuvent le mieux a.s.surer le but de la presente stipulation sont reserves a Sa Majeste Britannique."