Four-League Limit

Secrecy continued to cloak the progress of the negotiations by which Secretary Hughes is trying to secure treaties with foreign powers to allow their vessels to enter American ports with liquor under seal in exchange for the privilege of extending the three-mile limit to twelve miles for the search and seizure of rum-runners.

Although Lord Curzon had condemned the proposal in the House of Lords, a special interdepartmental committee of the British Government reported on the proposed treaty and a reply was despatched to Washington. The reply evidently raised certain objections, because the State Department answered it in turn. But the text of the correspondence and the treaties was kept secret.

It is understood that our State Department was embarrassed by the premature announcement of its plan, and that treaty and notes will not be made public until the entire matter has been closed. Evidently Secretary Hughes hopes to succeed in the negotiations, since he still pursues them.