Chapter 3

The following notices appeared in the papers in the latter part of August, 1907, concerning a frontier incident between British Guiana and Venezuela:

"GEORGETOWN, _Aug._ 18.

"Captain Calder, with a small armed force, went down the Barima river and, crossing the boundary, invaded Venezuelan territory. He then demanded at the point of the revolver that 4,000 pounds of balata, said to have been won in a British forest, should be given up. The incident has been reported to President Castro. Excitement prevails at Morawhanna, the British frontier head-quarters, the people fearing measures of retaliation. Trouble has been experienced for the past few months in connexion with the balata trade, and British officers have been keenly alert to prevent illicit trading. The Governor is now at Lama, two days' journey from the capital. He is expected to arrive here on Tuesday."

"GEORGETOWN, BRITISH GUIANA, _Aug._ 28.

"The Governor has informed the Legislature that Captain Calder, who recently crossed the Venezuelan frontier and seized a quantity of balata which was alleged to have been collected in British Guiana, violated the frontier to the extent of 200 yards. The balata has been returned to its owner and regret has been expressed to President Castro."

"NEW YORK, _Aug._ 31.

"A message from Caracas states that the Venezuelan Government considers that the incident which arose out of the invasion of Venezuelan territory by Captain Calder, District Inspector of Police in British Guiana, and the seizure of a quantity of balata said to have been collected on British soil has been satisfactorily closed. President Castro has received a note of apology from the Governor of British Guiana with the announcement that Inspector Calder has been relieved of his post."

51. _A "Sujet Mixte."_

Felix Brown was born in London of German parents in 1875. He was brought up in English schools and considered himself an Englishman, although he knew that he was of German parentage and frequently went to Germany to see his grandparents. In 1900 he was a passenger on an English vessel destined for Riga. This vessel called on her way at Stettin. While in that harbour the German police boarded the vessel and arrested Brown for having evaded military service in Germany. Brown telegraphed to the English ambassador in Berlin and asked for his intervention.

52. _Koreans at the Hague Peace Conference._

During the second Hague Peace Conference the Emperor of Korea, although he had signed in 1904 a treaty according to which Japan exercised a protectorate over his country, dispatched an envoy and two secretaries to the Hague for the purpose of bringing some complaints before the Congress. One of the secretaries had been in Holland two years previously, and had left the country without paying his debts. When his creditors heard of his return, they asked an advocate whether they could sue him, or whether he was exempted from Dutch jurisdiction, since he now appeared as the secretary of the Korean envoy.

SECTION XIV

53. _The Adventures of a South American Physician._

In 1905 the President of a South American Republic visited London with the intention of undergoing an operation by a famous surgeon. He was accompanied, among others, by Doctor Alcorta, his physician-in-ordinary, who was watching the case. After dining with friends one evening at a well-known restaurant, during which he drank very freely of wine and liqueurs, Doctor Alcorta proceeded to the Empire Theatre. He at first listened quietly, but, being displeased by the song of one of the performers, he became noisy, had to be removed, and on proving violent was handed over to the police. Next morning he was brought up before a magistrate on the charge of having been drunk and disorderly.

54. _Extradition of a British Subject._

The following is a cutting from the police court reports of a daily paper:

"At Bow-street, Julius Kuhliger, _alias_ Nollier, 35, of Field-road, Forest-gate, was again brought up before Sir A. de Rutzen for extradition on the charge of obtaining money by false pretences in Belgium. Mr H. Lewis defended. In consequence of certain complaints Detective-sergeant Brogden kept observation upon a newsagent's shop in Shoreditch, and on the 2nd inst. he saw the prisoner call there and receive several letters. He followed the prisoner and saw him examine the contents, and then arrested him. The letters were found to contain four money orders of the total value of £6. 7_s._ 1_d._, and the prisoner was brought up at the Old-street Police-court and charged with being in the unlawful possession of them. It was afterwards discovered that the orders were the proceeds of an alleged swindle in Belgium which had been carried on from this country, and the original charge was abandoned in favour of the extradition proceedings. Detective-sergeant Brogden now gave evidence that the prisoner claimed to be a British subject, alleging that his mother was English, though his father was a Swiss. Since his arrest he had made a statement to the effect that about three months ago, finding himself in financial difficulties, he thought he would embark upon a system of fraud. He advertised in the German newspapers, he continued, stating that an English lady wished to send her two daughters to Germany for the purpose of learning the language of the country. Several persons replied offering to take the children, and he wrote to each of them accepting their offer, and stating that the luggage had already been sent on. He followed this by another letter purporting to come from a firm of railway carriers, saying that they had been instructed to forward certain trunks, and would do so on the receipt of their fees in advance. He arranged for the replies to these letters to be sent to five or six different newsagents' shops in various parts of London, and each place brought him in an average of about £10. The prisoner, on oath, now said that he was a British subject, and Mr Lewis asked the magistrate to say that this was not a case in which he ought to surrender the prisoner to a foreign Power. The magistrate said that with regard to the point raised as to the accused's being a British subject, the article in the Treaty with Belgium dealing with that matter said that 'in no case or on any consideration whatever shall the high contracting parties be bound to surrender their own subjects whether by birth or naturalization.' It had been held that such provision implied that the high contracting parties might surrender their own subjects, and that such surrender must be left to the discretion of the Secretary of State. He ordered the prisoner to be committed for extradition, and it would be for the Home Secretary to decide whether it was a case in which he ought not to sanction the surrender."

55. _The Case of the "Oldhamia."_

The following appeared in the _Times_ of Dec. 14th, 1908, dated St Petersburg, Dec. 13th:

"The Admiralty Appeal Court yesterday confirmed the judgment of the Libau Prize Court justifying the capture and destruction of the British steamer _Oldhamia_, bound fur Hong-kong with American oil. She was taken by the cruiser _Oleg_ of Admiral Rozhdestvensky's fleet off Formosa on the night of May 18, 1905, and a fortnight later, while proceeding to Vladivostok, struck on the Kurile reef and was burned by the prize crew to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Japanese. The Court disallowed a claim for damages by the captain and crew for the loss of their personal effects on the formal grounds that the claim had not been presented at the first hearing of the case. It allowed a claim of the Standard Oil Company to recover the cost of 200 empty kerosene cases. It confirmed the Libau verdict disallowing the claims of the Manchester and Salford Company, the owners of the vessel, for £61,580, and those of the Standard Oil Company for cargo consisting of 149,462 cases of kerosene, valued at $123,134 (£24,627).

"The circumstances of the capture were fully detailed at the trial before the Libau Prize Court on June 12, 1907. The arguments presented by Mr. Berlin, counsel for the plaintiffs, and the law officers of the Crown, bore first upon the _prima facie_ evidence of the _Oldhamia's_ destination and cargo, and secondly, on the point whether kerosene rightly came under the Russian declaration of contraband of war. It was admitted that the cargo was intended for Japan, but solely for commercial purposes. The principal legal adviser to the Admiralty submitted, however, that kerosene was now used also as a fuel for warships. Moreover, the vessel was considerably out of her course. The captain was unable to produce the charter-party or bills of lading, and one of the seamen declared that she carried guns at the bottom of the hold. Admiral Rozhdestvensky sent 300 sailors to displace the cargo in order to verity this statement, but they worked for two days without getting lower than the main deck. Mr. Berlin invoked the fact that the Procurator at Libau declined to recognize kerosene as contraband within the meaning of the Russian declaration, which specifically mentions naphtha. He argued at length on the question of conditional and absolute contraband of war. Upon these points the Russian and British views have been, and remain, at variance, as exemplified in all the prize cases connected with the late war.

"The result of the present appeal, however onerous to the owners, cannot be regarded as unexpected. A member of the Embassy staff attended the proceedings in behalf of the British Government."

56. _An Ambassadors Estate._

Musurus Pasha, the Turkish ambassador in London, died there in December 1907. In February, 1908, Mme Musurus took out letters of administration in England, and proceeded to pay the debts and the death duties payable in respect of the property in this country. The greater part of the ambassador's estate was situated in Turkey and Thessaly, and the only property in England was certain shares in companies. Two of the next-of-kin of the ambassador brought (in December 1908) an action to obtain the administration of his estate and also an injunction restraining Mme Musurus from removing any of the assets out of the jurisdiction of the English courts, or from dealing with them otherwise than in due course of administration.

SECTION XV

57. _Dangers of Ballooning._

On Nov. 24th, 1908, the following paragraph appeared in the morning papers, dated from Breslau:

"While a balloon, belonging to the Silesian Aeronautic Club, was sailing along at about 100 mètres distance from the Russo-German frontier on Saturday over Krotoschin, Sarotschin, and Zockow, 15 shots were fired at it from Russian territory, probably by frontier Cossacks. The weather was fine and the German flag hung from the envelope. Nobody was hurt, only one shot striking a sandbag, and the balloon landed safely on German soil."

58. _Family Honour._

In February, 1906, Carlo Waddington, the son of the Chilian envoy at Brussels, shot at and killed Balmaceda, the secretary of the Chilian Legation. The cause of this action was that Balmaceda refused to marry Waddington's sister, whom he had previously seduced.

59. _An Ocean Chase._

Recently in the Firth of Clyde the Fishery Board's cruiser _Vigilant_ observed a foreign trawler operating, it was alleged, within the three-mile limit of Ailsa Craig. The trawler made off, and a stern chase of over 20 miles, lasting about two hours, followed. The _Vigilant_ fired several shots, to which the trawler paid no heed, but ultimately the cruiser caught up the fugitive and compelled her to stop. The mate of the _Vigilant_ boarded the trawler, the captain of which refused to accompany the _Vigilant_ to Campbeltown, and, after the officer had obtained particulars of the boat and the crew, the trawler left for Fleetwood with the week's catch. The _Vigilant_ proceeded to Campbeltown and reported the matter to the Crown authorities.

60. _The "Maori King."_

The vessel, the _Maori King_, was purchased in March, 1906, by Messrs. Ginsburg and Co., a Russian firm. To enable the vessel to sail under the British flag, all the shares in her were nominally transferred to a British subject named Dow, who registered her in Shanghai as a British-owned vessel. Subsequently she sailed under the British flag from Vladivostok to Guaymos, in Mexico, carrying 921 Chinese coolies and 217 Russians. In January, 1908, the British consul-general in Shanghai seized the vessel as liable to forfeiture under §§ 69 and 76 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.

SECTION XVI

61. _The Island of Rakahanga._

On Nov. 20th, 1908, the following paragraph appeared in the papers:

"News has reached here that on July 1 last the natives of Rakahanga, in the Cook group, hauled down the British flag, and, after ejecting the island council, appointed their own Government, judges and police. The ringleader of the movement is a dismissed teacher of the London Missionary Society."

62. _A Complaint against the Police._

A policeman, stationed at the corner of Bond Street and Oxford Street for the purpose of regulating traffic, raises his hand as a sign for carriages coming from Bond Street to stop. One of the drivers ignores this sign and drives on. The policeman seizes the horse's head and stops the carriage, whereupon a gentleman within complains, maintaining that he is an ambassador to the English Court and that the police have no right to stop him. As the policeman does not give way the ambassador leaves his carriage and, going immediately to the Foreign Office, complains of the violation of his privileges and demands the punishment of the policeman.

63. _A Man with two Wives._

In 1900 Oscar Meyer, a German by birth, who is naturalised in England without having ceased to be a German subject, marries an Englishwoman in London. In the following year he obtains a judicial separation from his wife. As his marriage was never known in Germany, he succeeds in 1902, while staying in Berlin, in marrying his niece, whom he brings back to England as his wife. In 1905 the niece finds out that Meyer was already a married man when he married her, and has him arrested for bigamy.

64. _Murder on a Mail Boat._

The _Marie Henriette_ is one of those mail boats plying between Ostend and Dover which are the property of the Belgian government and are commanded by Belgian naval officers. On the 25th July, 1900, an Italian on board murdered an English fellow-passenger on the voyage between Ostend and Dover, within three miles of the latter port. On the arrival of the vessel the captain handed over the murderer to the English police authorities, but a few days later the Belgian government claimed the extradition of the criminal.

SECTION XVII

65. _Persian Disorders._

The following telegrams, dated from Bushire, appeared in the papers on April 12th, 1909:

"_April 10th._

"In view of the sense of insecurity caused by the looting of the Tangistani tribesmen, who will not submit to any control, his Majesty's cruiser _Fox_ to-day landed a party of bluejackets who are guarding the place. The Tangistanis are now leaving the district."

"_April 11th._

"Before the bluejackets landed from the cruiser _Fox_ yesterday, the British Resident in the Persian Gulf issued a proclamation informing the public that the measure had been forced upon the British authorities in the absence of any authority able to control the Tangistanis or guarantee the safety of British and other foreign subjects. The proclamation added that the bluejackets were being landed solely for the purpose of protecting foreigners and would be withdrawn as soon as security was assured."

On April 27th the following appeared in the _Times_ from Teheran:

"The advance guard of the Russian expedition to Tabriz left the frontier yesterday. The main body marched this morning. The force numbers 2,600, and consists of four squadrons of Cossacks, two batteries of horse artillery, three battalions of infantry, and a company of pioneers, escorting a large train of provisions.

"The commander of the troops has stringent orders to preserve a pacific attitude, and it is expected that he will halt some distance outside Tabriz, which he will not enter except in case of necessity.

"The Russian and British Legations will to-morrow jointly notify the Persian Government of the action taken and of the motives which prompted the despatch of an armed force into Persian territory."

66. _The Expulsion of Monsieur de Reus._

The following appeared in the papers of July 22nd, 1908, dated Caracas, July 21st:

"President Castro has expelled M. J. H. de Reus, the Dutch Minister Resident here. Dr. Paul, Minister for Foreign Affairs, sent his passports to M. de Reus with a note informing him that, in view of the opinions expressed by M. de Reus in a letter written on April 9th, President Castro declares him to be incompetent to serve as a friendly medium in the relations between Venezuela and the Netherlands.

"The letter referred to is probably M. de Reus's reply to President Castro's demand that Holland should exercise more effectual vigilance over Dutch vessels plying between La Guaira and Curaçao, in which Venezuelan revolutionaries frequently effect their escape under assumed names. This preceded the trouble caused by the closing of the port of Curaçao to Venezuelan shipping on account of plague at La Guaira."

67. _The Case of McLeod._

Alexander McLeod was a member of the British force sent by the Canadian government in 1837 into the territory of the United States for the purpose of capturing the _Caroline_, which vessel had been equipped for crossing into Canadian territory and taking help to the Canadian insurgents. In 1841 McLeod came on business into the State of New York, and was arrested and indicted for the killing of one Amos Durfee, a citizen of the United States, on the occasion of the capture of the _Caroline_.

68. _A Thwarted Suicide._

While the _Frau Elizabeth_, a German tramp steamer, is on the high seas during a voyage between New York and Hamburg, a sailor, Heinrich Kalke, jumps overboard with the intention of drowning himself. Another sailor leaps into the sea after him in the hope of saving Kalke's life. He succeeds in getting hold of the man, but Kalke struggles and, being unable to free himself, draws a knife and stabs the sailor, who thereupon sinks. While the struggle is in progress the vessel slackens speed, a boat is lowered, and its occupants succeed in securing Kalke. He is taken on board, conveyed to Hamburg, and there put on his trial for murder. Counsel for defence asserts that Germany does not possess jurisdiction, as the act was committed, not on a vessel sailing under the German flag, but in the sea itself, and as, according to § 4, No. 3 of the German criminal code, a German can only be punished in Germany for an act committed abroad, if the act concerned is punishable both by the law of Germany and by that of the country where the act was committed.

SECTION XVIII

69. _An Insult to an Ambassador._

The following appeared in the papers, dated St Petersburg, Feb. 4th, 1908:

"M. Bompard, the French Ambassador, regarding a recent paragraph in the _Grazhdanin_ as insulting, has addressed himself to M. Isvolsky, Minister for Foreign Affairs, complaining that the statement in question was directed against himself in his capacity of representative of the French Republic in Russia. He therefore asks for the protection of the Imperial Government. Since the Press laws contain no provision for the criminal prosecution of newspapers for insults offered to representatives of friendly Powers, a decree has been issued whereby the Prefect of St Petersburg, in virtue of the powers conferred upon him under the law on 'extraordinary protection,' has inflicted upon the editor of the _Grazhdanin_ a fine of 1,000 roubles (£100)."

70. _A Question of Legitimacy._

Edward Wolff, a German subject, domiciled in England since 1860, goes to Germany in 1870 for the purpose of there marrying his niece. He at once returns to England with his bride, and becomes naturalized in 1871. His wife dies in 1873 in giving birth to a son. In 1875 he marries an Englishwoman in London. As the result of this marriage a second son is born in 1876. In 1900 Wolff dies without leaving a will, six months after the death of his second wife. The son of the second wife claims the whole of his father's estate, maintaining that the first marriage of his father was invalid and that therefore his step-brother, being illegitimate, could not inherit.

71. _The Coachman of an Envoy._

In 1827 a coachman of Mr. Gallatin, the American minister in London, committed an assault outside the embassy. He was arrested in the stable of the embassy and charged before a local magistrate. The British Foreign Office refused to recognise the exemption of the coachman from the local jurisdiction.

72. _The Case of Schnaebelé._

On April 21st, 1887, Schnaebelé, the Commissionary of Police of Pagny-sur-Moselle, crossed the German frontier on official business, for the settlement of which he was invited to a meeting by the local German functionaries. He was, however, at once arrested on a warrant for being concerned with the organization of espionage.

SECTION XIX

73. _Amelia Island._

Amelia Island, at the mouth of St Mary's River, in Florida, was, in 1817, seized by a number of adventurers under the command of one McGregor, who, in the name of the insurgent colonies of Buenos Ayres and Venezuela, preyed not only on the commerce of Spain but also on that of the United States. The island was, at that time, part of Spanish territory; and as the Spanish government was not able to put an end to the nuisance created to the United States by the seizure, the latter ordered a man-of-war to expel McGregor and his men from Amelia Island, to destroy their works and vessels, and to take possession of the island for the purpose of preventing the recurrence of the nuisance.

74. _Representation to China._

On Jan. 15th, 1909, after the dismissal of Yuan-Shih-Kai, the British and the American diplomatic envoys at Peking called by appointment on Prince Ching, who, as president of the Grand Council and the Wai-wu-pu, is the highest official of the Chinese Empire. The purpose of the appointment was to make a joint representation on the part of the two powers regarding the dismissal, without any given reason, of Yuan-Shih-Kai, whose services to the cause of order, stability, and progress in China had inspired such confidence in their two governments.

75. _Exemption from Rates._

The following appeared in the _Times_, Dec. 9th, 1908:

"The claim of Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, a German Embassy official, to be exempt from rates in respect of his residence at Walton-on-Thames was before the urban council last night.

"A letter was read from the Rating of Government Property Department of the Treasury stating that houses occupied by representatives of foreign Powers and the accredited members of their suites were liable to assessment in common with other property of the country, but as their persons and personal effects were by international law exempt from seizure if they refused to pay rates these could not be enforced against them by process of law. Reciprocal arrangements had, however, been entered into with certain Powers, Germany being one of them, under which a contribution in lieu of rates was given by the Government to local authorities in respect of such occupations.

"The Walton Council, in common, it is believed, with many other local authorities in the country, had held the view that it was impossible to recover rates under such circumstances, but their attention was drawn to the present case by the Local Government Board auditor, at whose suggestion they wrote to the Treasury, with the above result."

76. _Errant Balloons._