Position of Crew when on Land abroad.
§ 451. Of some importance is the unsettled question respecting the position of the commander and the crew of a man-of-war in foreign ports when they are on land.
The majority of publicists distinguish between a stay on land in the service of the man-of-war and a stay for other purposes.[795] The commander and members of the crew on land officially in the service of their vessel, to buy provisions or to make other arrangements respecting the vessel, remain under the exclusive jurisdiction of their home State, even for crimes they commit on the spot. Although they may, if the case makes it necessary, be arrested to prevent further violence, they must at once be surrendered to the vessel. On the other hand, if they are on land not officially, but for purposes of pleasure and recreation, they are under the territorial supremacy of the littoral State like any other foreigners, and they may be punished for crimes committed ashore.
[795] So also Moore, II. § 256.
There are, however, a number of publicists[796] who do not make this distinction, and who maintain that commanders or members of the crew whilst ashore are in every case under the local jurisdiction.
[796] See, for instance, Hall, § 55; Phillimore, I. § 346; Testa, p. 109. See also art. 18 of the "Règlement sur les régime légal des navires et de leurs équipages dans les ports étrangers," adopted by the Institute of International Law, in 1898, at its meeting at the Hague (Annuaire, XVII. (1898), p. 278).
III AGENTS WITHOUT DIPLOMATIC OR CONSULAR CHARACTER
Hall, §§ 103-104*—Moore, IV. § 623—Bluntschli, §§ 241-243—Ullmann, §§ 66-67—Heffter, § 222—Rivier, I. § 44—Calvo, III. §§ 1337-1339—Fiore, II. Nos. 1188-1191—Martens, II. § 5—Adler, "Die Spionage" (1906), pp. 63-92.
Agents lacking diplomatic or consular character.
§ 452. Besides diplomatic envoys and consuls, States may and do send various kinds of agents abroad—namely, public political agents, secret political agents, spies, commissaries, bearers of despatches. Their position is not the same, but varies according to the class they belong to, and they must therefore be severally treated.