TERRITORIAL WATERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 9, 10 July 1937, Page 10

TERRITORIAL WATERS

METHODS OF MEASUREMENT

In justice to the Spanish rebels one must remember that their claim to stop foreign merchant ships six miles from the coast is not a new or opportunist definition of territorial waters (says the "Manchester Guardian"). The Spaniards have always claimed six miles as the limit. Nor are they alone among nations in confusing the difficult subject of territorial waters with their own special definitions.- International conferences have shown that it is almost impossible to reach a common definition. Various countries make different claims, varjdng from twe.lve miles downwards.

Nor do they agree on the manner in which.the distance should be measured. The Norwegians,' for instance, with their deeply indented coastline, insist that all indentations shall be ignored when the measurement, is taken. Some nations claim that the inner limit of their territorial waters shall be the most seaward point of any island which lies off their coasts.

In this confusion of rival .. claims Great Britain, rather characteristically, refuses to concede any claim larger than her own, which is to territorial waters measuring three miles from the coast, ignoring only the smallest indentations. She has, however, compromised on occasions. When, for instance, friction arose over American treatment of British ships smuggling liquor into the United States both nations agreed on three miles as the normal and permanent limit but one hour's steaming as the limit where ships carrying liquor were concerned.