The Slave Trade not Piracy by the law of nations. Attempts to put it down by treaty. the consent of the civilized world was never carried into effect. The only practical course, therefore, for those states who desired to put down the traffic was to adopt the British policy of entering into treaty engagements with other powers for the concession of a mutual Right of Search, so that cruisers of one party might have the right to stop, examine, and if necessary seize and bring in for trial, merchantmen of the other suspected of being slavers. But considerations of the sanctity of the flag as the emblem of the national sovereignty, and a feeling that the Right of Search was in its nature odious and should be kept within the strictest limits, often prevailed over the interests of humanity; and Great Britain had great difficulty in securing the general recognition of her views. The two powers most hard to satisfy were the United States and France. The former would not concede the point of mutual search till 1862, and her treaty of that year with Great Britain confined it within narrow geographical limits.1 The latter denounced in 1845 her Conventions of 1831 and 1833 on the ground that they allowed search, and would consent to nothing more than the maintenance of a squadron on the coast of Africa to co-operate with British cruisers for the purpose of suppressing the trade. The result was that the traffic in slaves flourished under the protection of the French flag. Arab dhows could easily obtain from a French Consul a license which conferred upon them a French nationality. They were then safe from capture even if their decks were crowded with slaves. The utmost a British officer could do, and this rather on sufferance than by right, was to send a boat and demand to have the ship's papers shown over the side of the vessel. If they appeared to be in proper form, he was obliged to let her pass unmolested, because the flag she flew protected her from search and seizure. The abolition of slavery in the various American Republics, and in Cuba, has put an end to the West African 1 Treaties of the United States, p. 455. slave trade; but the traffic still flourishes on the east coast of Africa, though it is beginning to feel the effect of the vigorous measures taken in late years to suppress it. The last and most far-reaching of these is the great International Convention of 1890, which was the Final Act of a Conference of representatives of all civilized powers called by Belgium at the suggestion of Great Britain.1 Difficulties arose with regard to its ratification. The French legislature demurred owing to the modified Right of Search granted by it, and the Senate of the United States took the ground that it did not wish America to be mixed up in European and African arrangements. But the various objections have been overcome or reserved for future settlement. France ratified in January, 1892, on the understanding that the maritime measures were subject to ulterior modification; and the Senate of the United States sanctioned the agreement in February of the same year, appending to its formal ratification a declaration that it did not thereby express approval of the protectorates and other territorial arrangements referred to in the clauses. By the middle of 1892 the Convention had received the formal assent of the civilized world.2 This important international agreement attacks the evil on land as well as at sea, and thus marks a new epoch in the history of the attempts to destroy the slave trade. It is a most elaborate document, divided into chapters and sections, and a large part of it would have been impossible had not the interior of Africa been opened to the influence, and in some degree to the dominion, of civilized powers. We can give but a very brief outline of its provisions. It stipulates for measures of repression to be carried out by each of the signatory powers, in the African territory over which it possesses either sovereignty or a protectorate. Stations and fortified ports are to be established from time to time as the 1 British State Papers, Africa, No. 7 (1890). 2 Ibid., Treaty Series, No. 7 (1892). country is opened up, and armed cruisers are to be placed on inland lakes and navigable waters. The importation and sale of firearms and ammunition is to be put under stringent restrictions in a zone extending over the greater part of the continent and including the islands within a hundred miles of the coast. Within this zone the traffic in intoxicating liquors is to be prohibited or severely restricted. Such of the signatory powers as allow domestic slavery are to prohibit the importation into their territories of African slaves. A great International Information Office is to be established at Zanzibar, with branches at other African ports: and in it are to be concentrated documents of all kinds with regard to the progress of the work of exterminating the slave trade under the Convention, while by means of it a constant interchange of information is to take place between the powers concerned. With regard to measures of repression connected with the sea, a great Maritime Zone is created, covering the western part of the Indian Ocean from Madagascar to the coasts of Beloochistan. Within this zone a very limited Right of Search is granted to one another by the signatory powers. Vessels suspected of being engaged in the traffic are to be handed over to a court of their own country for trial; and in case of condemnation the slaves are to be set at liberty and the captain and crew punished according to their offence. Native vessels are not to receive authorizations to carry the flag of one of the contracting parties for more than a year at a time, and their owners must be subjects of the power whose flag they apply to carry, and enjoy a good character, especially as regards the slave trade. The authorization is to be forfeited at once if acts or attempted acts of slave trading are brought home to the captain or owner. Lists of the crew and of negro passengers are to be delivered at the port of departure by the captain of the vessel to the authority of the power whose flag it carries, and the authority is to question both seamen and passengers as to the voluntary nature of their engagement. These lists are to be checked at the port of destination and at all ports of call. Certified copies of all authorizations and notices of the withdrawal of authorizations are to be sent to the International Information Office at Zanzibar. Slaves detained on board a native vessel against their will can claim their liberty, and any slave taking refuge on board a vessel bearing the flag of one of the signatory powers is to be set free. states. There can be no doubt that these provisions are calculated to strike a harder blow at the African slave trade than any it has hitherto received. Many of them must be regarded for the present and for some time to come more as counsels of perfection than as imperative commands. No power can patrol the whole of such immense and largely unexplored regions as have lately been appropriated in Africa by various But trade, and with it geographical knowledge and power of control, is advancing with great rapidity, and we may fairly demand that serious efforts to put down the capture of slaves in the interior will follow in its wake. It would be too great a strain upon credulity to be expected to believe in the sincerity of one or two of the contracting parties. As long as a demand for slaves exists in Turkey, Turkish officials will connive at its supply in spite of the treaty engagements of their country. The difficulty of eradicating domestic slavery from Oriental society is enormous, and till the task has been completed the slave trade will not entirely cease. Another barrier to success is found in the hysterical sentiment which deems the national flag dishonored should search be made beneath it by agents of another power, even though in consequence of their abstention it is used to cover the foulest of human wrongs. Probably the railway will be a more potent agent in the eradication of the evil than any international agreement. It will develop legitimate trade; and when the Arab slave hunters find that far more profit is to be made from it than from kidnapping their fellow-creatures, they will leave their cruel pursuit for other and more legitimate avocations. But the possibility of the gradual extinction of the slave trade in the future does not absolve civilized states from the duty of abating it in the present. They are morally bound to use all the means in their power for the diminution of so great a curse; and it is to be hoped that the pressure of enlightened opinion will keep every government to the strenuous performance of the duties it has undertaken by signing the great anti-slavery Convention. $125. The claim to Jurisdiction over offences commit ted abroad. We have now gone through the general and admitted rules as to a state's jurisdiction, with the exception of those which concern the powers exercised by belligerents over neutral individuals to restrain and punish violations of the rules laid down by the law of neutrality. These will be best discussed when we come to that portion of our subject. But before we pass on to the exceptions to ordinary jurisdictional rights, we must consider a class of cases in which jurisdiction is sometimes assumed by states, though it is to say the least very doubtful whether they are justified in doing so. There are pro visions in the laws of many countries whereby certain crimes committed by foreigners within foreign jurisdiction are made justiciable in their courts. Thus France, Germany and Austria punish foreigners who have committed abroad crimes against the safety of the French, German or Austrian state; and some powers, such as Russia and Italy, go further and punish offences against their individual subjects, such as murder, arson, and forgery, though committed in a foreign country by persons of foreign nationality. Of course the offenders cannot be tried and punished unless they come within the territory of the aggrieved state. But we may 1 For the law of most civilized nations on this subject, see the Report of the American Department of State on Extraterritorial Crime and the Cutting Case, pp. 38-53. |