RUM RUNNING

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1933, Page 5

RUM RUNNING

LEGAL RULING GIVEN

SEARCH LIMIT DEFINED.

(United Press Association—By Electric Teiegraph—Copyright.’

WASHINGTON, January 23

The Supreme Court ruled, to-day, that British or Canadian rum running vessels cannot legally be boarded and (search by coastguards men, when more than an hour’s sailing distance from the shore.

The decision was handed down in a case brought by Frank Cook, a Canadian. Unusual interest was attached to it, because of the frequent friction from the search and seizure of Canadian and British vessels by coastguardsmen on the look-out for rum-runners.

The Court- held that the treaty with Britain of 1932, which authorised the boarding of Biiti-h vessels suspected of liquor smuggling, if found within an hour’s sailing of the United 'States shores, superseded the conflictive provisions of the Tariff Act, 1930', under which the United States contended that coaljtguiardsmen were authorised to board British vessels, within four leagues of the coast.

The Supreme Court ruling was handed down in a cage which had brought a protest from Canada, regarding the seizure of the ves eil Mazeltov, eleven and a-hialf miles off the Massachusetts coast. The vessel had. a speed of only e'g.d to nine knots ail hour.