"But the Spanish government has the right in Cuba to execute upon
American citizens or vessels any laws prevailing there, in the same way
as they would execute them upon the Spaniards, unless they are
prevented by the provisions of some treaty with the United States. The
fact that the vessel in the harbor of Havana was flying a neutral flag
could not protect it from the execution of Spanish law.

"However unwise or inhuman the action of the Spanish authorities may
have been in searching the women on board the _Olivette_, they
appear to have been within their legal rights."

[Illustration: A Spanish Picket Post]

The Spanish Minister at Washington has also declared that his
government has the right of search in the harbor of Havana. Hence in
the face of two such authorities the question raised is probably
answered from a legal point of view. But if that is the law, it would
seem well to alter it, for it gives the Spanish authorities absolute
control over the persons and property of Americans on American vessels,
and that privilege in the hands of persons as unscrupulous and as
insolent as are the Spanish detectives, is a dangerous one. So
dangerous a privilege, indeed, that there is no reason nor excuse for
not keeping an American ship of war in the harbor of Havana.

For suppose that letters and despatches had been found on the persons
of these young ladies, and they had been put on shore and lodged in
prison; or suppose the whole ship and every one on board had been
searched, as the captain of the _Olivette_ said the Spanish
officers told him they might decide to do, and letters had been found