Desmons Punished

French editors have grown daily more apoplectic at the hardihood of Turkey in detaining under arrest in Constantinople one Lieutenant Desmons (TIME, Sept. 20 et ante) commander of the French steamer Lotus which collided some weeks ago with a Turkish cargo boat on the high seas.

Despite the French Government's official demands that Lieutenant Desmons be immediately set free, he was put on trial last week at Constantinople. The Court (which unquestionably had no jurisdiction, since the collision took place out-side Turkish territorial waters) sentenced Lieutenant Desmons to one year in prison and then reduced the sentence to 60 days, finally striking off from this latter sentence the 40 days which he had spent in prison awaiting trial.