TERRITORIAL WATERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 14

TERRITORIAL WATERS

feWNEBa". W THE SEA' D* DAYS % ' GONE BY,

Sjlltft wholo questjoii-cf., territorial wat.|m, now so anxiously discussed on both $ses of the Atlantio;-teems Vith the.joXnantlo blstorjg^^B^vicbaritime .empires jSt the past, of■Qie Originally no, euch narrow limits as the three miles of to-day bounded.claims of ter-* litorial •waters. Venice claimed, in her ■ great days, sovereignty over the whole of ihe Adriatic, and from this claim, jajjserted in more than one fierce;war, KJHne the pioturesque custom of the "es- j pousing of the sea." by the Doga on eachJ Jjcensi6n Day when a ring" was flung i teto the waters at the channel of Lido. This *Imtti was continued, at least in same, till Napoleon conquered Venice s^t 1795. Tha Scandinavian nations xnade large claims to the ownership of tHe seas adjacent.'. Spain and Portugal were supported;-.fcy the Pope in a ■' cjaim j.which-jdivided them - iiousajida of"milea'.of ,6ea, and the Span-' is-rds maiiitairied^thfeirJ'ciainiL'tili; Drake destroyed it for ever. In Britain we have still a number of hereditary nSrals whose empty titles Ti-eihind ns of tlfe period whjni^re^;ib6;jla'sserted wide cl|ims and maintained:-that certain areas" o£ seas were as muchi ours as the'dry land of these islands. £The Plantagenet. kinga claimed sovereign, lordship over "the eea of EnglfecT'; Edward HI. .claimed that his cestora were "lords ol the English sea ■ on every side.4' iTheTe^was the historic action of the British admiral in 1555 ft&en the Spanish fleet bringing Philip; of" Spain to wed Mary received a broadside for neglecting to lower flags.' The Stuarts claimed to be "lords of the surr6pnding I seasjj,raling .over them as part of; his territory." It was even claimed tfiat no force could blockade tHe.Flanders coast 'because "If was' washed' by f%he English' sSea." CromweE ' mainIslned '•■ similar pretensions and /-fought tg^make % them good.^ Some of the old inarinek^i*-wbuld■have-u'sed strong' language abbot the'xdm'par'ative mddesty' of' modern : ,clajms and .would, hive expect-, fe^ England', aid;the ( TTnited Sta^s -to' divide the J Nortli Atlantio' D"etwe'en' them aSlSpain.and: Portugal did on the.Sbuth'ieroi seas... ■.: X "-■"-' - >"■-•'-.■■■. :-