It is a matter of anxious doubt whether, in case
the Alabama part of the Treaty is torn off it to-day at Geneva, that will or will not dissolve the obligations of the other Conventions it includes, especially the San Juan Convention, the Canadian Fisheries' Convention, and the Convention deciding the reciprocal claims other than Alabama Claims. It seems that this must rest in great measure with the American Government, who assert, not on very plausible grounds, that in all other parts of the Treaty they give and we take, while in the Alabama part alone they took and we gave. The British Government at least is willing to give effect to the other parts of the Treaty, whether its main link is severed from it or not, and as many of the provisions affect- ing the fisheries are already in operation, it may be hoped that this will be so. But when once water enters a ship, even though it be built in separate iron compartments, one is not sanguine about the fate even of those which are still water-tight.
