SECTION IX. 33. _gypsies in Straits._

33. Gypsies in Straits.

In March, 1908, the Westminster Gazette contained the following paragraph:

"On the first day of October last a gipsy van containing a family of eight was escorted by Belgian gendarmes to the French frontier. On attempting to cross the boundary the wanderers were stopped by French gendarmes, who forbade any further advance. Thus beset behind and before by the authorities, the van-dwellers perforce made the best of a bad job, and resigned themselves to a long stay. On the whole, they have had the best of it; for they, at any rate, had a comfortable roof over their heads, while the four policemen who were on constant guard by day and night, keeping the unwelcome travellers at bay, were exposed to all the chances of the weather. Days, weeks, and months rolled slowly by. February commenced, and still the gipsy-van stood on no-man's-land, guarded by weary gendarmes, each drawing a franc and a half a day, and wondering when the other side was going to give in, and allow the gipsies to resume their wanderings. As far as is known the van is there to-day, and nobody appears to care very much about its fate. Perhaps in future years when the six gipsy children are grown up and leave the old home, and its paintwork has grown still more shabby, and the wheels have sunk up to their hubs into the soil, somebody will come across it and the patient gendarmes, and begin asking questions. Meantime the little comedy has already cost the French municipality of Mont Saint-Martin more than 1,000 fr., while the local police force has had to be helped by the neighbouring brigade to perform its ordinary duties.

"It is true that negotiations are going on with a view to settling the matter, but as four months have already passed since the van reached the frontier, there seems no particular reason for expecting a speedy conclusion to the farce."

34. A Question of Annexation.

Karl Abel, born in Nassau in 1840, left that country in 1865 for England for the purpose of settling there in business. In 1866 Nassau is conquered by Prussia and subjugated. Has Abel become a Prussian subject?

What would the decision be in the case of the native of a province transferred by cession to another state, who was domiciled abroad at the time of cession?

35. Disputed Fisheries.

An island rises in the open sea three and a half miles from the shore of state A and is acquired through occupation by state B, which establishes a fishing-station there. Very soon a conflict arises between states A and B on account of the fisheries in the waters between the new-born island and the continent.

How is the controversy to be settled?

36. Imperial Coasting Trade.

At the Colonial Conferences in 1902 and 1907 Australian statesmen brought before the Imperial Government the question whether the term "coasting trade," as used in British commercial treaties, could not be given such an extension of definition as would allow the entire exclusion of foreign shipping from the carrying trade between the United Kingdom and Australia.