Current Problems o f Enforcement	45

would like to begin a program of conservation, if it could
get Virginia's cooperation; (3) Maryland is spending con
siderably more in boats, men, money, and energy in the
enforcement of the laws, than is Virginia (and this seems
definitely to be true as concerns boats, men and money);
and (4) most importantly of all, serious inroads are being
made upon the supply of a valuable natural resource now
available to both states.

	Virginia conservation officials have in the main had
	two things to say of the Maryland contentions. First,
	while admitting that enforcement in Virginia is not all
	it should be, they have cited that prior to 1945 Maryland
	also was doing little by way of enforcing the oyster laws.
	Secondly, they have admitted frankly that the situation
	is beyond them, because of the overwhelming sentiment
	in the Virginia tidewater counties against any rigid en
	forcement of the Potomac River oyster laws.

	The basic difficulty with which Maryland has been faced
	in attempting to enforce the oyster laws has been the pro
	vision found in the codes of both states, requiring that

All offenses committed against the provisions of this
act by citizens of either state, shall be punished by
any of the magistrates or court of the state of which
he is a citizen having criminal jurisdiction. (Virginia
Code of 1942, sec. 3299.7; Maryland Code of 1939, Art.
72, sec. 70) .

	By the workings of this section, a citizen of either state,
	regardless of which set of enforcement officers apprehends
	him, has been entitled to be turned over to the courts of
	his own state and to be tried therein. The courts in both
	states, it seems, have been solicitous in not imposing too
	heavy a penalty upon the citizens of their own state.
	Accordingly, the really drastic penalty of confiscation of
	the boat and equipment is seldom applied.

	Maryland officials have taken the lead in suggesting
	possibilities to improve conditions in the Potomac River