International Incidents for Discussion in Conversation Classes Part 3

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 s.h.i.+pping from the carrying trade between the United Kingdom and Australia.

SECTION X

37. _A Russian Crime tried in Austria._

The following appeared in the _Westminster Gazette_ on Feb. 19th, 1908:

"WADOWICE (GALICIA), _Feb._ 18.

"Judgment was p.r.o.nounced 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 18th, 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 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 pa.s.s, 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 released, 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. _Stratagem or Perfidy?_

In 1783, during war between Great Britain and France, the _Sybille_, a French frigate, enticed the _Hussar_, a British man-of-war, by displaying the British flag and 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 prosecuted, but acquitted. However his nephew, a Mexican named Rangel, gave himself up for the crime and was condemned to two years' imprisonment. As this punishment 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 complaining 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 resident. On its recommendation the governor of the state of Puebla deprived the public prosecutor concerned of his office.

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 Radziwilloff, 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, sh.e.l.ls 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.

42. _Seizure of Amba.s.sadors._

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 amba.s.sador to Prussia, pa.s.sed, 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 in Debt._

Baron de Wrech, who had for some time been minister plenipotentiary of the Landgraf of Hesse-Ca.s.sel at Paris, was recalled in 1772. When he asked for his pa.s.sports, the Duc 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.

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 President._

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 s.h.i.+p in the harbour of Port-au-Prince:

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, _Dec._ 2.

"President Nord Alexis is safe on board the French training s.h.i.+p _Duguay Trouin_. At the last moment the President yielded to the pleas of those about him, and precisely at five o'clock a salute of 21 guns announced his departure from the Palace.

"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 coa.r.s.est 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 wars.h.i.+ps 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, succeeded in striking the President a glancing blow on the neck with his fist."

46. _A Murder in Monaco._

In August, 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Goold, the Monte Carlo murderers, were arrested in Ma.r.s.eilles, 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 nationality, and it was doubtful whether she had been legally married to Mr. Goold. Under these circ.u.mstances 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 11th, 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 favoured 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?