SECTION VIII
29. Signals of Distress.
Vattel (iii. § 178) relates the following case: In 1755, during war between Great Britain and France, a British man-of-war appeared off Calais, made signals of distress for the purpose of soliciting French vessels to approach to her succour, and then seized a sloop and some sailors who came out to bring her help.
30. A Change of Parts.
Aaron Nietitsch, a native of one of the Balkan states, while residing in London for two years for the purpose of learning English, contracted heavy debts which he did not pay on leaving the country. Shortly afterwards he came again to England as he was appointed secretary to the diplomatic envoy of his home state in this country. His creditors, who knew quite well that they could not sue a member of a foreign legation for debts contracted during the time of his mission, thought that they could proceed against Aaron Nietitsch, because he had contracted his debts while staying in this country as a private individual.
How would the case have to be decided if Aaron Nietitsch had contracted debts while in England as an attaché, had left the country at the end of his mission, and had afterwards returned as a private individual?
31. Violation of a Foreign Flag.
A political criminal, imprisoned in Port-au-Prince, in Hayti, escapes from the prison and makes for the harbour, with the intention of taking refuge on board a foreign man-of-war lying there. On his way he meets the diplomatic envoy of the state to which the man-of-war belongs, and as the Haytian police are on his heels he asks for the envoy's protection and safe conduct to the vessel. The latter calls a passing fly and enters it with the fugitive, but is overtaken by the police. Thereupon he takes the flag of his home state out of his pocket and throws the folds of it over the fugitive for the purpose of protecting him. The police nevertheless arrest the man. The envoy sends a report of the affair to his government, which requests from Hayti not only severe punishment of the police for the violation of the envoy's privileges and the insult to its flag, but also the release of the rearrested political criminal and his safe conduct to its man-of-war lying in the harbour of Port-au-Prince.
32. A Pickpocket at Sea.
An Italian passenger on board the French mail-boat Le Nord, plying between Calais and Dover, picks the pocket of an Englishman while the boat is two miles out on her way from Dover to Calais. The thief is arrested in Calais. Can England claim his extradition?