With Aid of England

In an effort to stop rum running, it is understood that Secretary Hughes made advances to Great Britain for cooeperation in suppressing the traffic. The exact matter of the negotiations is not known. It is understood that Great Britain would decline to grant any extension of the three-mile limit. It is possible that Great Britain might notify the United States of ships clearing from British ports with large liquor cargoes. The suggestion that the Bahamas be placed on a liquor ration, however, is apparently not favored in the British Colonial office, as appears from statements in the House of Commons by Undersecretary W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore. A representative of the Christian Science Monitor, however, was " informed in well-informed circles" that Mr. Ormsby-Gore's statement was "given on the spur of the moment."

The situation is briefly this: the British Government would like to assist the United States in evidence of friendliness. The sale and transportation of liquor, however, is perfectly legal for British subjects, and the Government cannot act to abridge their rights. Moreover, it is to British commercial interest that the liquor trade should go on. So there is little likelihood of any decisive assistance coming from Great Britain.