97. _"The Southern Queen."_
During an insurrection on an island belonging to state A, the _Southern
Queen_, a vessel sailing under the flag of state B with a cargo of
ammunition and carrying a number of individuals desirous of joining the
insurgents, is on her way to a port in the island concerned. State A,
receiving information of the matter, orders a man-of-war to be on the
look out for the vessel and to seize her. The order is carried out on
the high seas, 150 miles away from the island.
98. _A Three-cornered Dispute._
In April, 1893, the Viceroy Li Hung Chang granted the exclusive right
of the free importation of grain into Tien-Tsin to the China Merchants
Steamship Navigation Company. England protested against this monopoly,
because it was contrary to Article 3 of the Treaty of Commerce between
China and the United States, the benefits of which England could claim
in consequence of the most favoured nation clause in her own treaties
with China. The Chinese government answered that the United States had,
by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, broken the commercial treaty
concerned, that therefore the treaty had come to an end, and that no
one could, under the most favoured nation clause, claim any longer the
benefits of a treaty which had ceased to exist. (See Lehr, in the
_Revue de Droit International et de Legislation Comparee_, Vol. XXV.
(1893), p. 313.)
99. _Russian Revolutionary Outrage in Paris._
The following appeared in the _Times_ of May 10th, 1909:
"A Russian, who described himself as Colonel von Kotten, chief of the
Moscow secret police, was shot at yesterday by an escaped Russian
convict, Michael Vitkoff, at an hotel in the Rue Bolivar, where the two
men met by appointment. According to the police officer's story,
Vitkoff was a Polish revolutionary who had been sentenced to
deportation to Siberia, but who had been reprieved upon volunteering to
act as a police spy on the movements of his revolutionary comrades.
Vitkoff subsequently came to Paris, and upon the arrival of the police
officer in the French capital a few days ago he induced Colonel von
Kotten to visit him upon the pretext that he had important information
to communicate. No sooner had the officer entered Vitkoff's room than
the latter fired several shots at him with a revolver, none of which,
however, took effect. A hand-to-hand struggle followed, in which
Vitkoff was worsted. The man succeeded in making his escape, but gave
himself up at the nearest police station, where he told his story,
which was confirmed by Colonel von Kotten, who arrived shortly
afterwards little the worse for his experience. Vitkoff was taken into
custody and will be charged with attempted murder.
"Minute details of the attack upon Colonel von Kotten are published,
but they shed little or no light upon the motives of the aggression. In
some quarters it is suggested that, unless Vitkoff's action was purely
personal, it may have been dictated by a desire on the part of the
Russian revolutionaries to secure by means of a judicial trial in
France the publicity which even the Azeff and Feodoroff cases have
failed to gain for their efforts to expose the activity of the Russian
secret police."
100. _The Detention of Napoleon I._
The question is frequently discussed whether the detention of Napoleon
I at St Helena was or was not in accordance with international law. The
facts of the case are as follows: After having abdicated the throne of
France in favour of his son, Napoleon thought of taking refuge in
America, and therefore set out for the port of Rochefort. Arriving
there on July 3rd, 1815, he found the harbour watched by a British
fleet. After some days of deliberation he made up his mind to throw
himself on the mercy of the English people, and therefore on July 13th
he wrote to the Prince Regent that he came to take his seat at the
hearth of the British people and that he placed himself under the
protection of the British laws. On July 15th he went on board the
English ship the _Bellerophon_ and gave himself into the charge of her
captain, by whom he was conveyed to England. On August 7th Napoleon was
removed to H.M.S. _Northumberland_, and the commander was instructed to
convey him, together with a suite of twenty-five persons, to the island
of St Helena. He arrived on Oct. 17th and remained there a prisoner of
state up to the day of his death on May 5th, 1821.
In transporting and detaining Napoleon Great Britain carried out a
mandate of the allied powers, for three identical conventions
concerning the detention of Napoleon were signed at Paris on August
2nd, 1815, by the representatives of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia,
and Russia. The important stipulations of the conventions--see Martens,
_N.R._ II. p. 605--are the two following:
"_Art. I._ Napoleon Bonaparte est regarde par les Puissances qui ont
signe le traite du 25 mars dernier comme Leur prisonnier.
"_Art. II._ Son garde est specialement confiee au Gouvernement
Britannique. Le choix du lieu et celui des mesures qui peuvent le mieux
assurer le but de la presente stipulation sont reserves a Sa Majeste
Britannique."