Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
The Islander
Friday Harbor, San Juan County, Washington
What is this article about?
Hon. John A. Kasson, ex-minister to Germany, critiques European powers' interventions to maintain balance of power in Europe and Asia, ignoring international law, and notes a similar American principle against European interference in the Americas. (1896)
Clipping
OCR Quality
Full Text
Hon. John A. Kasson, ex-minister to Germany, recently furnished some questions and answers which are interesting. He said: "There is no principle of 'international law' that authorizes any great power of Europe to interfere between two nations, one of which seizes territory from another. Yet they continually do it. They say they have a right to prevent a disturbance of the 'balance of power' in Europe. They have lately extended it to Asia. Under what authority of 'international law' did England deprive Russia of land she conquered from Turkey? What rule justified Russia in the denial to Japan of the territorial fruits of her victory? Under what rule of law did England and France deny to Russia even the right to have a fleet in the Black sea? The answer is that there has grown up among European governments a sort of common law quite outside of the international code. England's prime minister is hardly justified in expressing surprise that there has grown up and developed among us a similar common law against a disturbance of our American balance by European intervention."
What sub-type of article is it?
What keywords are associated?
What entities or persons were involved?
Where did it happen?
Foreign News Details
Primary Location
Europe
Event Date
1896 01 09
Key Persons
Event Details
Hon. John A. Kasson states there is no international law authorizing European powers to interfere in territorial seizures to maintain balance of power, yet they do so in Europe and now Asia. He questions specific historical interventions by England against Russia, Russia against Japan, and England/France against Russia in the Black Sea, attributing it to a common law outside international code. He argues England's prime minister should not be surprised at America's similar principle against European intervention in the American balance.