224
Law, third edition, volume 1, page 433-434.
A copy of
the rolevant passage is enclosed. The important point is that Oppenheim's definition expressly covers action by the passengers, while Hall's does not go beyond the
Oppenheim's definition is: "Every unauthorised "act of viclamse against persons or goods committed on "the open sea either by a private vessel against another "vessel or by the mutinous crew or passengers against "their own vessel". It is true that against this may
be quoted the report on piracy prepared by Hr. Matsuda for the Legal Codification Committee appointed by the League of Nations, a copy of which was enclosed in my despatch No.515 of July 7th 1926. In that report the author says that if the crew mutiny, murder the officers and seize the ship, this is pirsay only under the domestic law of individual states. But this opinion is only to be treated as possessing such weight as may attach to the view of the author, and it is interesting to note that the definition which he gives of piracy is wide enough to cover the events in the present case.
The
3. I tarn now to the question of jurisdiction. piracy of the "Irene" took place on the high seas, and therefore any state which could capture the pirates had a right to try them. The only difficulty is that the actual firing on the "Irene" and her re-capture appear to have taken place in chinose territorial waters; and although to say that piracy is not piracy unless it takes place on the high seas is not necessarily the same thing as saying
that
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