The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-10

world after the Great War, it was gener.
ally expected that one of the principal
subjects for consideration there would
be the Freedom of the Seas. Such was
evidently the expectation of Miss Louise
Fargo Brown when she was writing her
historical essay thus entitled, which comes
to Us from the press of E. P. Dutton &
Co.; and such was the view also Of Sir
Thomas Barclay of Paris, the well known
international lawyer, whose volume en-
titled Collapse and Reconstruction con-
tains an instructive chapter on Freedom
Of Napigdtior which leads US to notice
the two books In one and the same article.
In prescribing the programme of fhe
worlds peace-10ur programme, the
only possible programme, as we see it,
President Wilson placed the Freedom of
the Seas only second in importance to
open covenants, openly arrived at" as
appears from Article II. of what Clemen-
ceau calls the fourteen commandments:
III. Absolute freedom of navigation
upon the seas, outside territorial waters,
alike In peace and in war, except as the
seas may be closed In whole or In part
by international action for the enforce
ment of international covenants"
Either because of doubt as to its mean
ing or apprehension as to its possible
interference with their national interests,
England and France declined to aceede
to this article as one of the bases Of the
armistiee with Germany Since their re-
fusal TINS to treat it as an acceptable
definition of the Freedom of the Seas, the
subject has dropped out of diplomatic
consideration or discussion. President
Wilson does not appear to have pressed
it upon the attention of the Paris Con-
ference and the other nations represented
at the peace table seem to have been con-
tent to Let well enough alone
II.
Miss Louise Fargo Brown charaeterizes
that part of President Wilson's pro-
granme which deals with the Freedom of
the Seas as the most dangerous of the
Presidents utterances. She admits that
"the dream Of an American navy which
will In perpeiuity act in harmony with
the British navy, without evoking the
jealousy Of fhe rest of the world, is
beautiful one--fOr an AnglO-Sdronv; but
she doubts whether France or Italy viii
always be content to be permanently in
ferior to England upon the sea. In her
judgment the only possible solution for
the maritime problems raised by the war
is the international control of the high
seas, exercised by an international feet
acting under a league of nations. In
addition to international machinery for
enforcing the law of the sea Miss Brown
would have an international tribunal to
punish violations thereof. These are the
practical conclusions of one who has evi-
IDENTIFY been a conscientious student Of
difRcRlt subject, and whose book reads
like the painstaking essay of a post
graduate candi date for a doctors degree
in philosophy. The book is a common
tary upon history rather than a complete
historical narrative of the successive con-
iicting claims to tie sovereignty Of the
seas; and it often assumes knowledge
on the part of the reader which every
one does not possess
Take, for example, the interesting
reference to the celebrated "War on Jen-
kihss Ear" Miss Brown tells us that
"modern research has established beyond
any reasonable doubt the important fact
that the immortal jenkins did actually
have his ear sliced off by Spaniard who
was searching his ship for Struggled
goods; and she excites our curiosity still
further by quoting the doggerel verse Of
that day winch recited the incident in the
lines:
"Jenkins's ear was cut off clean,
The case is clear, the knife was keen"
Al q