RUM-RUNNERS

Evening Star, Issue 21318, 24 January 1933, Page 7

RUM-RUNNERS

RIGHT OF SEARCH

SUPREME COURT'S DECISION

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

WASHINGTON, January 23

(Received January 24, at 10 a.m.) The Supreme Court ruled to-day that British or Canadian rum-running vessels cannot legally bo boarded, searched, or seized by coastguardsinen when more than an hour’s sailing distance from the shore. The decision was given in a case brought by Frank Cook, a Canadian. Unusual interest attached to the case because of the frequent friction from search and seizure of Canadian and British vessels by coastguardsmen on the look-out for rum runners.

The court held that the treaty with Britain in 1924 which authorised the boarding of British vessels suspected of liquor smuggling if found within an hour’s sailing of United States shores had superseded the provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930, under which the United States contended that coastguardsmen were authorised to board British vessels within four leagues of the coast.

RESULT OF CANADA’S PROTEST,

WASHINGTON, January 23. (Received January 24, at 11.40 a,in.) The Supreme Court ruling was handed down in a case which had brought a protest from Canada regarding the seizure of the vessel Mazeltov, when eleven and a-half miles off the Massachusetts coast. The vessel had a speed of only eight to nine knots an hour.