The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-08-01

question Of party sympathies"
We neither indorse the views here ex-
pressed nor condemn them. We have
no partizan interest in Cuban politics.
A Monroe Doctrine for the Baltic?
1t Is reported, and apparently believed
in Copenhagen. that Emperor WILLIAMS
visit to King CHRISTIAN has for it's motive
to secure the concurrence OF Denmark
with Germany, Sweden and Russia in
a declaration that the Baltic is a mare
clausun, or closed sea, in the technical
sense that while open at the option Of
it's owners to the merchant vessels OF
all countries it must not be entered
by the warships Of any Powers except
the four named. Would other Powers,
Great Britain for example, submit to
the declaration
We might answer that question by
putting another. Since the opening
Of the Suez Canal the Mediterranean
has become the shortest channel OF
communication between Europe and
the Far East; but before the completion
Of that waterway would Great Britain
have brooked an attempt Of the Powers
possessing. territory bordering on that
basin to proclaim it a mare clausum'
The second question answers ITSELF
For upward Of two hundred years
England combated the assumption that
she could be barred out OF the Mediter-
ranean because Spain happened to
dominate the Straits Of Gibraltar or
because other Powers happened to
possess strategic and commercial coigns
Of vantage on the borders Of that mid
land sea. She made good her claim
to traverse that basin at will with war
ships a. well as merchant vessels by
many q naval victory and by the CO.
cupation at various times Of Tangier,
Minorca, Malta, the Ionian Isles and
Cyprus, a list Of acquisitions which
has eliminated in the exercise of virtual
protsotorate over Egypt.
Interests OF a oognate character. II
not Of equal magnitude, would impel
her to resist with inhexible determine
ton any attempt to circumscribe her
right of free navigation in the Baltic.
A concerted effort on the part Of the
so called Baltic Powers to exclude her
from that sea would provoke her to
reprisals, which might take the form Of q
seizure Of one Of the Danish islands in
tho Sound. or Of the Swedish island Of
Gothland, or perhaps Of one Of the Prus-
sian islands of the coast Of Pomerania.
Having gained such stations for coaling
and repair, the superiority Of the British
navy would render England as pre-
ponderant In the Ostsee as she is in the,
Atlantic, and the last state Of the Baltic
Powers would be worse than the first.
Unquestionably, the Baltic Is almost
as nearly closed sea by nature as is the
Black Sea or the Mediterranean. The
channel by which 1t communicates
with the North Sea runs between Dem
mark on the west and that southerly
tip of Sweden on the east which used
to be called Skanis and which for oen-
turtles belonged to Denmark. That chan
mel is divided into three passages, namely,
the Sound, the Greet Belt and the Little
Belt, the last two Of which run between
Danish islands. When Denmark also
held tho Swedish mainland opposite
she believed herself to have a natural
right Of ownership to the Baltic, and
undertook to exclude therefrom at her
discretion foreign vessels or to exact
from them the payment Of toll. This
claim was formulated and enforced as
early as the thirteenth century, but in
the following century the Hanseatio
League defed it, took Copenhagen, SUBJ
jected Denmark temporarily to Q sort
Of vassalage and maintained it's own
asoendency in the Baltic for nearly
three hundred years. On tho decline
of the Hanse towns the Danish Crown
reasserted its pretensions to ownership
Of the Ostsee, and for some three CEN
turtles continued to levy, under the
name Of the Sound dues, tribute upon
all foreign vessels traversing the channel
between the Baltic and the North Sea.
Intermittent protests, which sometimes
took the form Of war, we're made against
this tribute. and finally in our own
day we have been seen the Sound dues
abolished. 1t is obvious, however, that
IL the four Baltic Powers were able to
make good by force declaration that
the Baltic is a mare clausum they logi-
cally could not only bar out waBhips,
but also reimpose the old Sound dues
on the merchant vessels OF all outside
countries.
1t is plain enough that even il Russia,
Sweden and Denmark should concur
With Germany in the declaration said
to be desired by Emperor WILLIAM
they could not make it good by force
against England's will. For the pur-
pose Of shutting out British warships
Emperor WILLIAM would have to rely
almost exclusively on the German feet,
for the assistance at present procurable
from the three other Baltic Powers
would be insignificant Russia now has
in the Baltic no first class battleship
ready to take the sea, and although
Sweden and Denmark had a year or two
AFRO nina and aaven battleshipa resnact-