29. _Signals of Distress._
Vattel (III. Sec. 178) relates the following case: In 1755, during war
between Great Britain and France, a British man-of-war appeared off
Calais, made signals of distress for the purpose of soliciting French
vessels to approach to her succour, and then seized a sloop and some
sailors who came out to bring her help.
30. _A Change of Parts._
Aaron Nietitsch, a native of one of the Balkan states, while residing
in London for two years for the purpose of learning English, contracted
heavy debts which he did not pay on leaving the country. Shortly
afterwards he came again to England as he was appointed secretary to
the diplomatic envoy of his home state in this country. His creditors,
who knew quite well that they could not sue a member of a foreign
legation for debts contracted during the time of his mission, thought
that they could proceed against Aaron Nietitsch, because he had
contracted his debts while staying in this country as a private
individual.
How would the case have to be decided if Aaron Nietitsch had contracted
debts while in England as an attache, had left the country at the end
of his mission, and had afterwards returned as a private individual?
31. _Violation of a Foreign Flag._
A political criminal, imprisoned in Port-au-Prince, in Hayti, escapes
from the prison and makes for the harbour, with the intention of taking
refuge on board a foreign man-of-war lying there. On his way he meets
the diplomatic envoy of the state to which the man-of-war belongs, and
as the Haytian police are on his heels he asks for the envoy's
protection and safe conduct to the vessel. The latter calls a passing
fly and enters it with the fugitive, but is overtaken by the police.
Thereupon he takes the flag of his home state out of his pocket and
throws the folds of it over the fugitive for the purpose of protecting
him. The police nevertheless arrest the man. The envoy sends a report
of the affair to his government, which requests from Hayti not only
severe punishment of the police for the violation of the envoy's
privileges and the insult to its flag, but also the release of the
rearrested political criminal and his safe conduct to its man-of-war
lying in the harbour of Port-au-Prince.
32. _A Pickpocket at Sea._
An Italian passenger on board the French mail-boat _Le Nord_, plying
between Calais and Dover, picks the pocket of an Englishman while the
boat is two miles out on her way from Dover to Calais. The thief is
arrested in Calais. Can England claim his extradition?