San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-30
THE THREE MILE LIMIT

The United States government Is
bordering with much gravity the ques-
ton of whether it has jurisdiction on the
high seas outside of the limit OF three
miles off shore. AS might be expected.
the authorities-all of them lawyers
disagree on the proposition.
Some of the lawyers claim that the
United States has jurisdiction beyond
three miles because there is no absolute
" defined law or regulation declaring
that the authority of any nation shall
not extend more or less than that dis
lance. In other words. there being no
absolute law on the matter, the United
States is entitled to all the authority it
can get away with"
1t is perfectly true that there is no
positive agreement as to the three-n!ile
limit In fundamental law nobody could
enforce the three-mile limit If however,
the United States is going beyond the
three-nile limit where is it going to
stop? If it is going beyond the three
mile line and claim authority over the
fourth mile and the fifth mile, there is
no reason why it should not carry its
claim to all the other miles lying between
Europe in one direction and Japan in
the other. Do we propose to claim that
we have authority over all the ocean
right up to the edge of the territorial
waters of any country that borders on
the sea? We certainly cannot do that.
We must stop somewhere.
Then too, if we claim authority over
he ,,,1ec ha,-n,I {1,o ,rJ ,,,,to
about the claims of other nations: In
common sense and common decency we
would be obliged to grant to the flag of
every other nation the same privilege
we claim for our own. If we assert au-
thority over all the miles between our
third mile and the commencement line
of any territorial waters we must con-
cede that the rights of other nations ex-
tend right UP to Sandy Hook or the
entrance to the Golden Gate. There
would be the commencement Of pretty
mess. We would claim authority over a
vast extent of water and while claiming
it would be forced to concede that every
other nation also controlled it. Such a
situation is equal to the reductio ad alb
surdum in mathematics.
More thar that, the United States
has in various controversies, claimed
that no nation had jurisdiction beyond
the three-nile limit. How can we now
assert that we have jurisdiction the ex-
istence of which we have always denied
to other people?
1t will be remembered that one Of the
chief causes of the War of 1912 was the
claim of Great Britain that she had the
right to stop and search Our vessels once
they had passed outside our own terri
torial waters. During the Civil War
the United States vessel, San Jacinto
stopped the British steamer Trent OF
the high seas and tool, from her two
men sent by the Confederate states tc
France and England respectively. We
were obliged to give up the men ant
President Lincoln took pleasure in sur.
rendering them because it gave him tn,
opportunity to compel Great Britain tC
recognize the claim that we had AWAY,
made that no nation had the right o
stoppage and seizure on the high seas
Up to that time Britain had contendet
the contrary and the Trent affair com
PEELED her to admit that she had beer
wrong from the beginning.
If we had not the right in the days o
the Civil War we have no such RICH