Evening star., 1925-06-07

American guano hunters. In these
cases, there We're nearly a hundred
OF them. the American position seems
to have been that American citizens
We're entitled to harvest the guano
and to naval protection in case any
one interfered with them. Once the
guano was harvested, however, the
land was allowed to relapse as no.
mans land and none of these islands
now are territorial possessions of the
United States. although at one time
they We're considered worthy of naval
demonstrations.
Due to the fact that an American
citizen, Henry M. Stanley of the New
YORK Herald, was the leader of the
Brltlsh financed expedition into the
congo basin in search of the mission
ary-eXplorer, David Livingstone, and
that Stanley's researches gave to the
world its first accurate knowledge Of
the interior OF the dark continent, the
united States laid claim TO a voice in
the disposal of the territory.
She did not claim any of 1t for her.
selr, but held that Stanley's status
gave her claim to some voice in the
way IT was administered
ferhaps the most notable case of
dispute over territorial ownership in
which the United States was involved,
was the Navassa Island dispute with
Haiti.
This little plot of land was discovered
in 1857 by William Duncan. It Law
about 80 miles off the coast of Haiti
ana contained rich guano deposits.
U. S. Awarded Title.
Haiti laid claim to It, after Duncan's
discovery, as contiguous to her ter
ritory The United States maintained
her position that the island was her
own by right of discovery and, in the
lace OF armed resistance, Americans
Te were sustained in removing the guano.
me Island afterward was abandoned
ana reverted TO Haiti, but the United
states maintained its contention that
a country could not make the "con-
tlguous territory" claim for land
Whlch lay more than three miles be-
yond her coast, and that this was the
property or the nation which discoy-
cred it.
The American principle of owner
snip py right of discovery and the
extent OF the rights convened is laid
oown IN note on the Louisiana ter
rltory In 1905 by Charles Pinckney
ana James Monroe to Cevallos, the
Spanish Foreign Minister.
whenever an European nation"
says this note, takes possession of
any extensive seacoast, that posses
oloA 10 UNDERSTOOD as extending into
the interior country. to the sources
or rivers emptying within that coast,
to all the branches and the country
they cover, and to give It a right, in
exclusion of all other countries, to the
same.
whenever one European nation
makes a discovery and takes pos
session of any portion of that CONT
nent, and afterward another does the
same at some distance from 1t, where
the boundary between them is not
determined by the principle above
mentioned, the middle distance be-
comes such, of course"
This opinion is considered as appli.
cable to a continental mass.
All of Islands Given.
In the case of an island, however,
the discovering nation has usually
been considered entitled to all, re-
gardless of the courses of its rivers.
according to Moore's International
Law Digest, which is considered by
the State Department practically as
an official volume.
Hence under the accepted princi-
pies of international law Canada's
claims fall down, whether the land in
the unknown area turns out to be
either an island OF a continent.
But the Axel Heiburg land case re-
mains to bother all who try TO get
clear understanding of the problem.