WEATHERING A STORM

By its strict interpretation of the Prohition Laws with reference to foreign vessels, our government succeeded in getting into a very difficult position. Great Britain, although unable to offer passengers the pleasure of a wet trip home, was not legally affected. But France and Italy found in this interpretation an encroachment upon their wine-ration law. The captain of a French or Itallan ship was faced with the necessity of breaking his country's law or of being arrested by American prohibition officers. Fortunately Secretary Mellon has solved the dilemma in a common-sense manner by allowing the ship doctor to determine how large a supply of medicinal liquor he may need.

Doubtless such extromes of casuistry will seem absurd not only to foreign nations but to a large number of Americans. But the absurdity lies not in Mr. Mellon's ruling, it lies in the wording of the prohibition laws. However much power fanatical Drys may believe our government to have over the rest of the world, the makers of the law had no swollen imaginations. They merely lacked foresight. The new ruling is at best a make-shift and it can be expected that at the next meeting of Congress the cause of the absurdity will be properly remedied.

At present Mr. Mellon's ruling is causing much interesting speculation upon the fate of the proposal for a twelve-mile limit of the right of search and seizure. As yet no word either favorable or unfavorable has come from the nations approached. But wiseacres are nodding their heads and proclaiming that the new ruling was made because rumors, unheard by the public, of determined opposition to the President's reciprocal proposal have come to the government. When Great Britain, insisting upon the universal three-mile limit, has come off victorious so recently in its tiff with Russia, acceptance by her of a special twelve-mile limit would seem highly improbable. On the other hand President Harding has never yet been forward about publishing an international proposal without a good measure of hope for success. The agreement to publish the terms of treaties does not preclude the use of diplomatic feelers and without the latter a nation may only too easily make itself ridiculous. If the proposal should be accepted and the hazards of the rum-runner increased by nine miles of water, the prohibitionists would be justified in claiming a large feather for their cap.