VISTULA, a river of Europe, which rising in Polish Silesia runs through Poland, along the frontier of East Prussia, and de bouches through the territory of the Free City of Danzig. Its situ ation fits it to be a waterway of the first importance, although it is liable to floods and frozen over for three months in the year. It must be made navigable for river-craft at their full capacity during a sufficiently long period of the year; and must be open to inter national shipping on a footing of equality. At present it is navig able up to Przemsza, but there is no regular traffic above Warsaw, although it is largely used for timber-floating.
Before the World War conservancy works had only been carried out on the German part of the river, 222 km. in length ; spur and longitudinal dykes were built to maintain the water level, thereby facilitating the flow of water at flood-time and also im proving navigability. Since the War Poland has been too occupied to carry out improvement works, or even much in the way of up keep. Traffic has greatly decreased.
Under Article 18 of the Treaty concluded at Versailles on June 28, 1919, between Poland and the Allied and Associated Powers (the so-called "Minorities Treaty") Poland undertook to apply to the river system of the Vistula (including the Bug and the Narew), pending the conclusion of a general convention on the international regime of waterways, the regime set out in Articles 332-337 of the Treaty of Versailles, that is to say, the regime applicable to International Waterways.
Serious differences of opinion arose as to the interpretation of the legal status of the Vistula. It has been asserted that Article 18 should be held to provide for the possibility of the Vistula being subject to the regime of the Barcelona Convention (see INLAND WATER TRANSPORT), once that Convention has been rati fied by Poland, and should the Vistula come under the general definition contained in the said Convention. But those who urge this theory do not consider that the Vistula comes under this defini tion, since the criterion therein accepted is that the part of the river which is naturally navigable should traverse or separate several States. As the right bank of the Vistula in Eastern Prussia
has been given to Polaqd to a depth of so metres in land, Germany is not a riparian State; and the Free City of Danzig should not in law be considered as a State.
On the other hand it has been urged that the words "pending the conclusion" mean that the regime of Articles 332 to 337 will be automatically superseded by the regime of the General Con vention as soon as the latter has been concluded, and this regard less of the fact whether the Vistula will, or will not, eventually come under whatever general definition is established by the Gen eral Convention given in the said Convention. Those who put forward this second argument assert that the Minorities Treaty certainly did not contemplate a temporary international regime for the Vistula, since such an arrangement would have been contrary to all ideas of an international regime. They maintain that, it it is to the interest of international shipping to have certain guaran tees of freedom of navigation and equality of treatment, that in terest does not cease with the conclusion of an international con vention. Further, they are of opinion that the Vistula is included in the category of navigable waterways referred to in paragraph 2 of Article I of the Barcelona Statute. A solution to this acute legal controversy will hardly be found unless the dispute becomes an inter-State one and comes before the Permanent Court of Inter national Justice.
See Vistula: Traite des Minorites entre les principales Puissances alliees et associees et la Pologne du 28 juin, 1919 (Great Britain, Treaty Series, 1919, No. 8). (J. M. F. R.)