AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 148, 23 June 1911, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

SEI2UBE OF DUTCH FISHING VESSELS. Department is taking e&'ps with a view toj vindicating its action in, iaving seized the two fishing vessels flying the Dutch flag. ' The exact form wMch tEe preliminary proceedings are to. take has not yet been determined. Counsel has been briefed, arid ft is proposed to take the first action before the magistrate at i Broome; but as there are points of international law involved the case may ultimately find its way into the High Court. "It is," the Attorney-General says, '"'a well-settled principle of international law that vessels of a foreign, nation fish within the territorial waters .of another nation without a license or some bbher form of permit." That being the principle, the point he thmks resolves itself into, a question of facts. If these yessejs were fishing within the territorial waters of the Commonwealth—and the department is satisfied on the .information which it possesses that there is no doubt about it—then the Commonwealth could seize them. To establish a prima fa.de case it has to be settled that the waters were territorial. The Dutch Consul-General has' made representations that the vessels ought to be released,, on the ground that the seizures took place beyond the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth.