CO885-(11-13) — Page 40

1483.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

| 2།

C.O. 885

Reference :-

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

MY LORD,

No. 744.

(MALTA.)

QUEEN'S ADVOCATE to FOREIGN OFFICE.

Temple, February 1, 1872.

"

I AM honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Viscount Enfield's letter of the 29th ultimo, stating that he was directed to transmit to me the accompany- ing Despatch from Her Majesty's Minister at Rome, enclosing a correspondence received from Mr. Dennis, Her Majesty's Consul at Palermo, respecting the case of the cutter "Lara 19

of Malta, which was captured by the Italian Customs House officers off the coast of Palermo on the 27th October last, on a charge of attempting to smuggle tobacco into Sicily, the capture being effected whilst the “Lara transferring a portion of the tobacco into small fishing boats.

was in the act of the owner Signor Vincenzo Stivada, of Malta, in protesting against the capture of his That it appears that vessel, does so, not on the ground of the charge being an unjust one, but that the distance at which the capture took place from the shore renders this proceeding illegal. That the evidence upon this latter point is, as I should perceive, contradictory, and Mr. Dennis has applied for instructions for his guidance not only in the present case, but in view of any future question of a similar nature arising; and Lord Enfield was pleased to request that I would take these papers into my consideration, and furnish your Lordship with any observations I might have to offer upon the case, and with my opinion as to the instructions with which it may be proper to furnish Mr. Dennis.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands, I have the honour to

Report

That the fiscal zone of every State is in practice more extensive than its proper territorial waters, and under the comity of nations a State is allowed to enforce its municipal laws for the protection of its revenue against foreign vessels which have not yet come within the limits of its maritime jurisdiction, provided such vessels are approaching its coasts with an intention to carry on illicit trade.

In the present case it is admitted that the Maltese vessel had approached the coasts of Sicily with the intention of smuggling, and was, when seized, in the act of tran- shipping its cargo into boats for that purpose.

There does not appear to me to be anything unreasonable in the distance from its coast at which the Italian Government has claimed to make seizure of the " and as Her Majesty's Government claims in cases of a like nature, namely, in cases of Lara," vessels of which more than half the crew are British subjects-and I would remark that more than half the crew of the "Lara" are stated to have been Italian subjects-to make seizures at a distance of four leagues from its coasts, and in certain localities at a distance of eight leagues (16 and 17 Vict. c. 107.), Her Majesty's Government cannot properly object, in my opinion, to the Italian Government exercising on principles of reciprocity a like power over British vessels which are approaching its coasts for the purpose of smuggling under similar circumstances.

I have, &c.

TRAVERS TWISS.

To the Right Hon. the Earl Granville, K.G.

&c.

&c.

&c.

(Signed)

16278-708,

25—5

-5'86.