Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-08


today as 1.-THE Englishman." Her
| statesmen. however. were long-sight-
; cd and early in the fifteenth century
they entered the race for world dis
covery and dominion and, rapidly ac-
| CURING the lead, have kept it dur
ing the last two centuries. A spleG-
, did opportunity was offered to Prus-
Sia 10 engage in colonization in the
new world. but Frederick the Great
declined. with the result that we of
today see Germany h0pelessly handi-
capped in the effort to preserve her
overflow population.
1t was largely by the aid of Britain.s
navy that piracy and the slave trade
. were swept from the seas. Smuggling
became extremely hazardous and
whenever British rights" ON the
ocean were interferred with England
did not hesitate to call on the services
OF her great nayy-her effective pro-
test against the forcible seizue of the
ooafederate commissioners, Messrs.
Siuch aiid Mason. from the English
packet ship Trent in our civil war be
ing u concrete example
Won War, But Not Decision.
| There has been a strong undercur-
| rent of resentment against England's
assumption of being mistress of the
ocean in the last two hundred years.
The war of 1S12-1s15 was brought
ABOUT solely by her arbitrary inter
| ference with American rights" on
the seas. That war was fought and
won by the United States. but. singu-
larry enough, the question of Eng
iahds right to act as the big police
man on the seas was not definitely
| touched upon in the treaty of Client
IN december, 1S14-that right" evil
IDENTIFY having been condoned-and
| she continued to rule the waves
down to the present period
such has heen the development OF
! the world in the last few decades
however, that the question of the SUI
Z: eralnty of the worlds waters has be
come of vital import to every mari
time people. In justice to England. it
+: must b. acknowledged that this "de-
/ Eelopn'cnt of tEc world" (astonishns-
and gratifying as 1t isl has been tie
logical result of Engiand's GUARDIAN
! snip OF tn" oceans and seas. Bat the
time has como when this important
/ mission should b" authortatively de-
| termined and the responsibility for
maintaining rights OIL the high seas
definitely fixed. Hitherto. England ha
assumed the self-appointcd task
J with the tacit and, in general. COM
PEELED consent of other maritime peo-
pies She has performed her work as
wei as, il rot better than, could be eA-
| pectcd in an unauthorized and unof-
| fetal capacity. She has been just" 10
other commercial peoples SO far as she
could where such justice did not i'm
; pair her own maritime interests-anu
F; we have every reason to believe thai
! she was fairer than most naval poAy
| erS would have been under similar
circumstances. At least. she has pre-
vented freedom of the seas" from de-
/, generating into unbridled license. For
: two hundred years she had maintained
| a fair degree of order with a really
conscientious effort to render justice
i to all, and under these fsyoring con-
ditions the world has made the great
est strides in progress in its career.
Critical at This Period.
| 1t woud be difficult to exaggerate the
importance Of the freedom of the seas
at this critical period OF the worlds his
tory. The world has been developed
into compact community, and The seas
afford avenues and lanes Of intercon-
! munication quite as important and in
dispensablc as the avenues and streets
/ of a city. That these ocean thorough
fares should he under the responsible
and authorized control of definite au
thorities must be evident to every in
telliSent mind that gives the subject
careful consideration.
| There is nothing illogical. startling
or abnormal in the plan to extend the
/! jurisdiction of each maritime nation
over the seas to a point half way
across to it's nearest maritime neigh
Dor. Pope Alexander VI drew all
! ina ginary line north and south, some
three hundred leagues west Of the
Azores. and gave Spain the jurisdic
F.. ton OH one side and Portugal (those
, nations then being the greatest sea-
| powers in the worldD on the other.
We have been prone to smile at this
! ridiculous" assumption of authority.
| but we must not forget that, at thai
period, the Pope was the greatest
i power (both temporal and spiritually
in the world: SO his delegation of the
| two halves of the Atlantic ocean to
| the control CT the then two greatest
sea powers in the world was the act
of the worlds supreme authority and
/ power.
+, And, when we follow it down to
! its final analysis. we will find thai
"by right of eminent domain" (the
| supreme law of every nation and its
!! last court OF appeal) has as its four-
/ dation the power to hold a possession
, (wnether that possession be acquired
! by inheritance, purchase or conquest)
| by righteous might.
| Basis Of Three-Mile Limit.
| Much the same principle was exer-
cised when. early in the nineteenth
| century, England and the United
States established the '.three-mfle"
limit off the coasts of their respective
mainlands. That extension of sea
! jurisdiction was substantially in
creased during our dispute with Great
Britain over the New Found!and fish
cries so as TO include a straight line
| between prominent headlands. orig
i inally. the three-mile limit was fixed
i. at that distance SO as to insure in
habitantS on shore against being in
jured by shot from vessels engaged In
| battle. At that period naval (and
| even land) ordnance could not throw
| shot more than q mile or two, SO the
/ three-miie limit was regarded as safe.
But. as we all know. the development
/ of modern warfare has been SO ire
merdous that the old-time three-mile
limit is entirely Inadequate. We have
| guns throwing shot ten and more
miles, while we hear that the Ger
mans threw shells into Paris from q
point seventy-odd miles away. That
date, but that is not saying that 1t
will not be still more developed
| (probably on vaster scale) in the
near future.
But mere ordnance is. by no means.
the only means modern warfare has
devised for reaching a distant foe
We have the submarine and the air
craft, which from distance Of a
thousand miles could. in a few hours.
work untold havoc on a hostile peo-
pie. And. what IS most significant of
all. the development Of underwater
and air navigation Qn its practical
application to warfare) is in its in
to what extent it will be developed In
the future