PIRACY STILL EXISTS

Shannon News, 29 June 1926, Page 3

PIRACY STILL EXISTS

THE LEAGUE INTERESTED PROPOSED NEW LAW That pirates and piracy still exists as in the old days of Captain Kidd and Lieutenant Blood, is indicated by the fact that the League of Nations has just submitted to all of the nations of the world a draft project for an'interional law on the subject.

Should the proposition meet with the approval of a sufficient number of nations, an international conference will be summoned for enacting an international convention on the subject. The latter would then make up part of the codified international law Of the world, which the League is setting out to attain progressively. The draft project which has just been sent out is largely the work of Matsuda, of Japan, and Wang ChungHui, of China, both international jurists of world-wide repute. In preparation for their project both made a profound study of all existing laws and customs relative to the suppression of piracy. The New Code.

The proposed codified international law on the subject is very short, consisting of only eight articles. The law specifies that piracy can. only take place on the high seas, as against the territorial waters, of the various nations, and that it is not necessary that in the acts of drepredation committed there should be the specific purpose of gain. ‘ However, such acts of depredation which are committed for a purely political object are not regarded a» constituting piracy.

It is also specified that only private ships can commit piracy. Where mutiny has taken place on a warship and the crew utilises the ship afterwards for piratic purposes, the vessel loses its public character and becomes a private ship subject to the penalties inflicted for piracy.

When a crew has committed acts of piracy, every warship has a right to stop and capture it on the higil seas. A pursuit started on the high seas can even be continued into territorial waders provided that the capture of the pirate, ship it be turned over to the authorities of the littoral state within whose, territorial waters it was taken.

Where suspicion of piracy exists the commander of every ship, on his own, responsibility, has the right to stop the ship "and make an investigation on board.

In case the suspicion proves correct the commander of every warship, if the capture took place on the high *eas, has- the right either to try the pirates himself or deliver them over o competent authorities. If, however, the suspicion prove incorrect, the captain of the suspected ship will be entitled either to reparation or indemnity as the case may be. The League has asked all of the cations of the world to send in their observations on the proposed law before October 1 5. It is then that the League’s commission on the progressive codification of international law will decide whether the responses are suficient for justifying the League in summoning an international conference for the codification of the project into international law.