Evening star., 1923-06-30
FURTHER SHIP RUM
CRISIS DISCOUNTED
Foreign Nations Expected to
Put Own Curb on
Liquor Craft.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

delicate, but not desperate, diplo-
matte situation. The United States
government contemplates at this
writing nothing SO drastic as seizure
OF Foreign vessels and arrest Of their
captains. All concerned are conscious
or the serious crisis such action might
produce.
Unless provocation Is offered by
european or Asiatie shipping COM
panies beyond anything that has yet
transpired, nothing farther-reaching
than lmpoundIng of their sealed sup
plies Will be undertaken. Provoca-
t1on would be seen by our govern
ment in anything that seemed to be
lnveterate" disregard Of American
law. as irreyo.ably laid down by the
supreme Court ruling. If. despite
the seizure of one ships stores after
another. such as now 10 occurring in
New York harbor. European lines
were to ignore such punitive meas
9res, 1T would constitute systematic
defiance that might compel another
attitude, on Americas part.
DO Not Expect Crisis.
1t can be stated authoritatively that
such a development Is not anticipated
On the contrary, the expectation is
that foreign governments promptly
Will take steps with their shipping
ilnes designed to obviate the neces-
sity OF extreme measures at American
ports. Just how they will do SO is
not clear. But there Is a conviction
IN Washington that a way will be
found: The anxiety for avoiding real
troubie with the United States is
quite as keen abroad as our own de-
sire to escape gracefully from the
dilemma in which we admittedly are
now placed.
The British governments refusal
TO consider proffered trade" of
9 "a. a - ~ h a Dc ey.Ns
twelve-mile limit for the privilege of
bringing sealed liquor supplies into
the three mile limit requires the
United States to devise new methods
Week has witnessed an undisguised
diminutIon of hope that relief may
be expected at the hands OF the
Sixty eighth Congress. The Supreme
Court concretely limited that a REM
edy; and the only remedy. lay in
modification of the Volstead act. But
with President Hardings Denver
speech solidifying dry sentiment
throughout the country as 1t has not
been cemented in a long time. and
with the Anti-Saloon League in ma
tional convention voting a s2.500,000
budget to keep Congress bone dry,
prospects grow DINNER that any sort
or wet concessions are attainable.
Eyes on Congress-.
Authorities in Washington who pro-
be ended amicably therefore confess in
the same breath that they don't know
just how it's going to be done. VIII
the Anti-Saloon Leaguers be unbending
If the specter Of war Is trotted out be-
fore their eyes? VIII they support a
dry Congress in placing the comfy OF
nations" before bone-dry prohibition
considerations? These are the questions
anXiously asked in Washington; and
probably in London. Paris and Toxic.
too. The same Congress that enacted
the Eolstead law permitted the Panama
Canal Zone to be wet for passing for
eign ships. In fact, only a similar
concession is sought within the three
mile limit.
Secretary Hughes sees hope in the
circumstance that no foreign govern
ment as yet has automatically pro-
tested against the breaking Of Gus
toms seals and the seizure OF liquor
stores: Technically. therefore, the
situation has not yet achieved the
stature OF an international Incl
dent" Meantime Mr.. Hughes Is de-
irving considerable satisfaction from
the remarkable coincidence provided
| by a decision handed down in June
by the lord chief justice of Great
OF Hamburg. in July, 1922, arrived at
Newcastle -on-Tyne with a cargo Of
pit props.
The British customs authorities.
! suspecting that the ship was snug
Cling liquor, poked through its bunk-
ers and discovered ninety-seven gal
Ions Of spirits concealed under the
coal. The spirits were contained In
packets of a size and character in
which their importation into British
territory is prohibited. The British
customs act forbids the importation
of spirits unless carried In ships of
at least forty tons burden and con-
tanned in casks of the size of at least
nine gallons.
Find Liquor in Coal
When the customary visit was made
by customs officers on the ships ar
rival the master declared there was
nothing dutiable aboard. The ship
was searched on two occasions with
out discovery of the spirits, but a
third search revealed them hidden in
the coal bunkers.
Altogether forty-four cans and
twenty-five bottles of spirits and sew
ell bottles of rum were found. They
had been so carefully secreted in the
coal that none Of the bottles was
broken even while the customs off,
GERS were hunting through the bunk
ers with so-called tuck sticks" with
totaled 154 proof gallons, being prac-
tically pure alcohol. The value was
roundly, at English prices. s240, and
the duty leviable, IL the spirits had
been declared. was $3,075. The seven
bottles of rum. worth about $3.50.
were subject to a duty of about S15.
In his defense the master of the
Cleopatra said it was forbidden in
Germany to load goods which might
subject the ship to seizure or fine in
a foreign port. The lord chief justice
in summing up the evidence intro
duced by the crown and by the de-
fense, pointed out that 1t was imma-
terial whether the contraband liquor
was, as alleged, to have been taken
to Antwerp or not. 1t was difficult
to imagine, he said. how the contra
band could have been secreted under
the bunker coal without the knowl-
edge of the ships engineers. neither
Of whom had been called for the de-
Tense. The jury answered in the af-
firmative the two questions put before e
them by the lord chief 5ustice-hrst.
that there was an Illicit importation
of spirits, and secondly, that q re-
sponsible officer of the ship was
actually implicated.
Ship Condemned.
Counsel for the defense pleaded for
mitigation of Judgment cordemning
the ship in the sum of $4,000, but
the yord chief justice re1oined:
Looking at all the facts and con-
j involved, and by way Of warning to
others, I condemn the Cleopatra In
the sum of $4,000 and order the de-
fendant to pay the costs.
The Cleopatra case is considered
at the State Department an ex-
traordinarily pat illustration of a
sovereign nations right to enforce
it's domestic laws with ruthless Sc
verify, even against foreign, ships.
The. significance of the parallel to
current controversies in America lies
in the British lord chief Justices ad-
| monition that the ship was con-
demned "by way of warning to
others"