Connecticut western news., 1888-01-11
COSTA RICA's BOUNDARY. Tho Nature of the Dispute the Presi dent Is to Arbitrate.

The question referred to the decision of the United States Government by the concurrent action of Costa Rica and Nicaragua is not, properly speaking, one of international from tier, but of treaty validity. The underlying subject of controversy Is, of course, the boun- dary line between those two republics; but the single point before MT. Cleve- land is whether the treaty of 1858 is c binding agreement. Should it so be held, the boundary dispute will thereby of necessity be determined in accordance with the theory of the Government of San Jose; but if held to be invalid, as the NicaraguAn Government con- tends, then the boundary dispute becomes again an open one, to be submitted to some arbiter, possibly the Spanish Government, for decision on grounds outside of the treaty of 185S
 What gives the question . special interest to this country, in addition to the selection of the President as umpire, is that the disputed territory is directly on the line of the proposed Nicaragua Canal; and the present decision must have an effect upon legislation for the prosecution of that work, and of the vari ous subsidiary enterprises which will natur ally spring up in that region upon its completion.
 The treaty of San Jose was signed at that place April 15, 1885, ratified at Rivas eleven days later and acted upon by the Constituent Assembly of Nicaragua on the 3Sth of May, this body happening at that time to 0 ill ses- sion, and possessed of absolute powers. The Constituent Assembly of Nicaragua was then engagel in drafting and adopting constitu- ton and seems to have conferred upon the ex- ecutive authority of Nicaragua the right to rat ify the treaty made at San Jose. The document traced the boundary line of the two republics, giving Costa Rica jurisdiction up to the right bank of the San Juan, with the privilege of navigating that river. The validity of this treaty was first disputed, according to the Costa Rican claim, in 1872, fourteen years after it's negotiation, and solely from the fact that the projected canal across the Isthmus at the point in question made it desirable for her to claim
 IL R-- this important waterway between the two oceans.
 Nicaragua rests her argument that the al- legged treaty is null and void largely on the peculiar condition of her own country at the time the treaty made and immediately previous It was, in fact, period of civil war, varied and controlled by flibusterism. The domestic hostihties broke out in the year 1855 between the Liberals and Conservatives, and during their progress the ser.i ices of the cele- brated Col William Walker were called upon He established himself in Nicaragua. and the republic was in . constant state of turmoil. Nicaragua claims that, while 1t is true that the international canal project caused the deter imitation of the boundary to assume degree of practical importance which it had never possessed before, there Is no ground for assum. ing that Costa Rieas claim had been accepted by her. On the contrary, since the alleged treaty never at any time received that form oi acceptance which her laws require, it cannot she holds, be made binding upon her from the fact that it was incorporated into Cossa Rica's fundamental law of Dec. 26 1859
 The point then, which MT. Cleveland will have 10 decide is whether the instrument oi April 15, 1858, IS valid agreement. The two republics agreed to submit this to his decision by convention signed at Guatemala, Dec. 24 1886~ Costa Rica intends, if the preliminar, decision should go against her, to claim under tho final adjustment, a territory running uI on the western shore of Lake Nicaragua to point in the same latitude as the mouth of the river La Flor, which empties into the Pacific and from the lake across to this mouth of tho a Flor