The Bosphorus and Dardanelles.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2888, 18 May 1878, Page 4

The Bosphorus and Dardanelles.

(Ebom The Times, Fbb. 22.)

To the Editob.—Sir, —Tn "the memorandum of Count SchouvalofPs conversation with Lord Derby on'the Bth June, 1877, which appears in The Times of this morning, I read the following passage :—

"With regard to the Straits, the arrangement by virtue of which the Black Sea, which is closed in time of peace, is opened in time of war to all fleets hostile to .Russia were conceived in a spirit of distrust and enmity towards her."

This assertion is at variance with the »clear and unquestionable evidence which is afforded on this subject by Lord Paljnerston's despatch of the 25th of October, 1839, to Lord Clanricarde, recording the substance of " the communications which .Baron Brunnow was sent hither to make," &c Among those communications was the positive offer, to which I have alluded in a jformer letter, on the part of the Emperor, to join with the British Government in establishing "as a permanent principle and standing rule," the arrangement now sanctioned by existing treaties. To this distinct proposal Lord Palmerston" replied —and his words deserve . special notice at the present moment— that—

" With respect to the Straits of the

Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, Baron .Brunnow had rightly understood the opinion of Her Sflajesty's Government, and that this opinion rests upon a general and fundamental principle of the law of nations. Every State is considered as having territorial jurisdiction over the sea which washes its shores as far as three miles from low water mark ; and, consequently, any strait which is bounded on both sides by theterritory of the same Sovereign, and which is not more than six miles wide, lies within the territorial jurisdiction of that Sovereign. But the Bosphorus and Dardanelles are bounded on both sides by the territory of the Sultan and are in most parts less than six miles wide ; and consequently the territorial jurisdiction of the Sultan extends over both of those Straits, and the Sultan has a right to exclude

all foreign . ships of war from those

Straits' if he should think proper to y;do so. JNow, by the treaty of 1809 ' Great Britain acknowledged this right on the part of the Sultan and promised to acquiesce in, the enforcement of it, arid it

is but just that Russia should x take the

same engagement; and. Her Majesty's Government are of opinion that the exclusion of all foreign ships of war from the two Straits would Be more conducive to the maintenance of peace than an understanding that the Straits in question

- should be a general thoroughfare open at -all times to ships of war of all countries."

' If Count Schouvaloff's comments on the p settlement whfeh had its origin in the above recorded conversation are just, we must necessarily arrive at the conclusion that the Empror .Nicholas deliberately proposed to the Government "an arrangement conceived in.a spirit of distrust and enmity towards Russia," which is absurd. The traditions of the St. Petersburg Foreign Office seem not to be well preserved. - .-■*■ Your obedient servant, Edwaed Heebies. > Athenseum Club, Feb, 19.