The sun., 1896-10-17
The Bancroft and tho Straits.

Tho position taken by our Government
has always been that any right which it
possesses to send ships of war into the Black
Sea cannot be destroyed by agreements Of
sundry European powers, to which it is not
party.
When the coasts OF that sea were all
under the dominion of the Porte, it formed
noteworthy example of the =" closed sea"
recognized by international law. AS such,
the right of Turkey to exclude foreign war
vessels from it appeared to be well estab-
lished. But when Russia made her con-
quests there, and the Black Sea was
no longer an Ottoman lake, the case
was manifestly altered. Nevertheless, it
suited the parties to the treaty of Paris in
1855, and to the treaty of London i'll 1871,
to agree that the Dardaneles. as the en-
trance to the Black Sea, should still remain
closed to ships of war, except that the Porte
might, in time of peace and in furtherance
Of the treaty provisions, at its discretion,
allow foreign war ships to pass through.
The view of our Government has always
been that this restriction in regard to what
could no longer properly be regarded as n
closed sea was purely conventional, and
made by the parties to 1t for their own mu-
tual government, and with reference to
principles of European politics, such as the
balance of power, with which we had no
concern. Our Government has held that
as it is removed from all part in these
politics, its warships should be allowed to
go freely into the Black Sea. The whole
modern tendency, indeed, has been to free
one after another Of the seas formerly as
serted to be closed, or under local territorial
jurisdiction, as in the case of the Adriatic
the Baltic, the Bay Of Fundy, and notably
in that of Behring Sea. Yet, as matter Of
courtesy and Of wise practical conduct, the
custom Of our Government has been to ask
the Sultan's permission when it wished to
send a ship through the Dardanelles.
On the last such occasion its request took
a novel form. 1t wished not only to send
a war vessel through to the Bosporus, but
to retain it there as guardship, such as
other nations maintain in the Golden Horn.
1t was obvious, at the time, that two objec-
tions to granting the request might occur
to the Porte. One was that the smallest
ship we then had in European waters
was the Marhlehead. which exceeded in bat
terry power the limit prescribed for guard
ships. The other question was whether the
privilege of maintaining n guardship was
not reserved exclusively for the treaty
powers. The Porte in reply to our request
contented itself with taking the latter
ground: but Minister TERRELL is under
stood to have represented that, if the former
objection should be obviated, he could ar
range to get guardship through
1t was for that reason that the little Ban
croft was fitted out as n ship against whose
size and gun power no objection could be
raised, SO far as stationing her at Constan-
tinople was concerned. The position Of our
Government to-day undoubtedly is. as it
always has been, that it has the
right to send its war vessels into
the Black Sea, although expediency and
courtesy have thus far led it to apply to the
Porte for permission. The request made
months ago for authority to place n guard
ship in the Golden Horn was based on what
American interests and rights demand. The
Bancroft has been sent ont expressly in
order to serve as such a guardship. The
fact that during the recent riots Mt Con
stantinople our residents had no such refuge
of their own, but would have been COM
PEELED to apply to those of other nations,
shows why the little vessel should be there.