PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 219 



riparian State full sovereignty over its own part of the river, and limited the 

 right of pilotage to the subjects of riparian States ; and in 1868 the Regulations 

 of Mannheim f^irther whittled down the old liberal principles of France — to 

 the disadvantage of non-riparians, although they were admitted to rights of 

 navigation. The Revised Rhine Navigation Treaty of that year was still in 

 force in 1913, administered by the six riparian States — Holland, Prussia, Hesse, 

 Baden, Bavaria, and Germany (as owning Alsace). Even since 1871 Prussia, 

 as the strongest Power, has hampered the development of non-Prussian ports, 

 using even the most childish tricks with pontoon bridges, choice of wharves, 

 accessibilitv to rail, etc., against other German States. 



Since 1871, too, the Rhine has illustrated another important point — namely, 

 that the traffic on an inland waterway depends largely, perhaps vitallv, on 

 the extent to which railways are wiping or forced to co-operate ; and this 

 has a present importance even from a purely international point of view. 

 One of the results of the Franco-Prussian war was that Prussia bought up a 

 number of private railways in the Rhine valley, and eventually used the profits 

 of the transaction to make a secret fund for aggressive purposes. Now, if 

 properly administered as an international waterway, the Rhine will be perfectly 

 free except for trifling dues on boat or cargo for the expenses of upkeep ; and 

 it will compete so favourably with the Prussian railways that their rates will 

 have to be reduced to a minimum. This will cut hard at such differential 

 treatment as has handicapped British trade in the last twenty years, and it 

 will leave no surplus with which the unscrupulous can juggle. 



Of course, the Rhine is essentially linked with the INIeuse and the Scheldt — 

 politically, economically, historically ; and the Powers have long been too 

 lenient or too timid with Holland, possibly because her purely IcgnJ position 

 appeals to lawyer politicians. The Dutch base their claims to' monopolise the 

 estuary of the Scheldt on the Treaty of Munster (1648), but have greatly 

 strengthened their legal position in recent years. The mnrriaa;e of the Dutch 

 queen to a German princelet was followed immediately by the intrigue that 

 ended in Belgium definitely granting to Holland special rights on the 

 Scheldt in time of war, and Germany strongly supported Holland in getting 

 these rights extended between 1905 and 1908. But the Scheldt is merely an 

 international river ; it is navigable into France, and it was only by France 

 waiving her claims in 1839, and proposing a dual control by Belgium and 

 Holland — like that of the Rhine by France and Germany at the beginning of 

 last century, and that of the Niger by France and ourselves now— that Holland 

 ever obtained the power which she has abused. When Napoleon annexed 

 Antwerp, he declared the Scheldt free; and the Rhine Regulations, when 

 extended to the Scheldt, were interpreted as meaning ' free for all flags out 

 into the sea.' Even so, the Dutch raised every possible difficulty, and naviga- 

 tion had no fair chance until the railw.iy from Cologne to Antwerp broughtin 

 the only kind of influence which the Dutch seem to understand. 



We have, therefore, full knowledge of all the essential conditions necessary 

 to ensure the proper administration of international rivers, and shall have no 

 kir.r) of excuse if we are caught napping or misled by plausible and ' interested ' 

 tricksters. Amongst their last tricks is ' the great diflficulty of policinsr such 

 a river, where a German boat may he stopped' by a French official.' That is 

 not more terrible than a Rumanian boat being stopped by an Austrian official ; 

 and the experience on the Danube shows that there is "really no difficulty at 

 all — for the simple^ reason that offenders are always dealt with, naturally "and 

 reasonably, by officials of their own nation, just as the various European Powers 

 have the risrht of jurisdiction over their own subjects in the Belsinn Conso. 

 In Article 25 the effete and pharisaical Berlin Act of 1884-5 provided that its 

 regulations for the Congo 'shall remain in force in time of war.' To-day we 

 are less ambitious, and desire only to further safe, easy, honourable, intercourse, 

 in time of peace, between nations that are unequal in size and population, wealth 

 and power, situation and relation to navigation facilities. We have seen that 

 one small nation may ill-treat another srnal! nation from stupiditv almost as 

 easily and a.s grossly as a large nation may ill-treat a small nation from tvranny. 

 Under the circumstances it seems necessary to remove from both the .'•tupid and 

 the tyrannical the opportunities for misusing such facilities; and the obvious 

 way of doing this is to make international rivers international in use and in 



