THE RUM-RUNNING INCIDENT.

Evening Star, Issue 20136, 28 March 1929, Page 8

THE RUM-RUNNING INCIDENT.

“ Deucate ” is the right word to apply to tho position caused by tho sinking of the rum-runner I’m Alone off the American coast. A hundred years ago, if tho schooner was a British one, war might have been caused by it, but some senso has been learned in a hundred years. Tho mn,in questions to be determined in tins case, on which there is conflict of evidence, and whether the schooner, which, it appears, was of Canadian registry, was within or without the twelve-milo territorial limit when sho was 'called on to stop, and whether the American patrol vessel had any right under 'tho terms of the treaty to follow and attack her beyond them when she refused tho summons. Great Britain, and also Canada, have done their best to discourage adventurous citizens from this modern form of smuggling, which has had two incentives hitherto—the great profits to be made from it when it is plied successfully, and contempt, shared in practice by most Americans, for a law that goes further than morality. Britain, followed by Canada, extended by special treaties tho three-mile territorial limit to one of twelve miles, so that the American coastguard service might possess more room in which to arrest offendei'S, and those bo subjected to greater risks in coming near the shore. The ti'eaties assisted so much to reduce the traffic that “Rum Row'” was reduced to a mere shadow of its former proportions. Within recent weeks it has been reported that perhaps less than 2 per cent, of American liquor is imported, and that seven-eighths ot that supply comes by the Canadian bolder. Suggestions were made that Canada should assist more than sho is doing now—and her officers have not boon idle —in tho repression of that traffic, but Canada has enough to do in conserving her own laws. The war against smugglers on the Atlantic coast has nob been without its “ incidents,” even since the special treaties came into force, and one decision which lias been given by an American judge would seem fatal to American contentions in the present case, on tho assumption that the L’m Alone was sunk outside territorial waters. A steamer named the Federal Ship, with a liquor cargo worth £3OO,QUO, was seized 300 miles off tho Golden Gale after offering resistance to an American revenue cutter. Prohibition officials claimed that the seizure was legal, as they possessed evidence ol tho Federal Ship’s intention to violate the law. Federal Judge Bonrquin, however, ruled that tho seizure was illegal, it was (ho said) sheer aggression and trespass like that which contributed to the war of 1812. It was contrary to the treaty,'and not to bo sanctioned by any court. “it cannot be the basis of any proceedings adverse to the defendants. ... A decent respect for

tho opinions of mankind, lor national honour, tho harmonious relations between nations, and the avoidance ol war declares that contracts in law lepiosented by treaties shall ly scrupulously observed.” The chairman of the American House of Representatives Naval Committee, Mr Britten, who Ims been called an Anglophobe bet ore now, takes an entirely British view of American action in tho latest case on tho facts that have been stated. But tho matter will be settled by diplomatic agreement.