INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5348, 3 February 1916, Page 4

INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM.

Naturally America is concerned in puzzling out the status of the Appam. In heading for the United States coast the commander of the captured liner did not .seek the nearest neutral protection. Portugal and Spain are both nearer. It is tme (as a critic points out) that a course northward to the Spanish Peninsula might have been more beset with British warcraft than a course westerly to America : but that facor need not have prevented Lieut. Berg from seeking Spanish protection. The Appam was captured off the Canary Islands, and the Canary Islands are themselves Spanish. However, instead of seeking a Spanish neutral port, Lieut. Berg sought an American one, and crossed the Atlantic to obtain it. His motive is by no means certain. There may have been a German desire to complicate the discussion with the United States by drawing that country into a new phase of international law and of neutral responsibility. Whatever the legal position and the upshot of the incident may be, Lieut. Berg lias certainly set Washington thinking. Under Articles 20 and 21 of the Hague Convention of 1907. a neutral Power must release a prize brought into one of its ports under circumstances other than those arising out of “unseaworthiness, stress of weather, or want of fuel or provisions.” If, on the other hand, the prize is brought into the neutral port under the circumstances quoted, then

‘‘it must leave as soon as the cirstanees which justified its entry are at an end. If it does not, the neutral Power.must order it to leave at once; should if fail to obey, the neutral power must employ the means at its disposal to roloaso it, with its officers and crew, and intern the prize crew.” Article 23 provides that prizes may enter neutral ports “pending the decision of the Prize Court,” but as the United Stott's Government excluded this article, and is no party to it, that Government is not bound by it. Under Articles 21 and 22. a prize could* not legally remain in Newport News or any other American pan. after disabilities of seaworthiness, stress of weather, or want of fuel or provisions had (eased. After that., the prize would have to leave, to In' recaptured by watching British warships outside the territorial limit.