Huntsville gazette., 1892-09-17
WALKERS MISSION.
Keynote Of the Expedition To
Venezuelan Waters.
British Overreaching in South America
Must Cease, and the OR-Quoted
Monroe Doctrine be Put
Into Practice.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12.-Th-re are
good reasons for believing that the
sealed instructions, which were yester-
day delivered to Admiral Walker on
board the Chicago, intrusted him with
mission more important, perhaps,
than any that had been confided to an
American naval officer in recent years.
The conference which President Harri-
son held with Acting Secretary Of
State Adee on his recent visit
to Washington; the long consulta-
ton between Secretary of the
Navy Tracy and Mr.. Adee before
Admiral Walkers orders were agreed
on the carefully worded official state
ment given out through the United
Press that the admiral was directed
to pursue vigorous course in dealing
with the situation, especially in con-
nection with foreign aggression" all
take on new significance on the sup
position, believed to be well founded,
that Admiral Walkers mission to La
Guyra with his squadron will be to
proffer the friendly Intervention of the
United States to the Venezuelan au-
thorities, whoever they may be by the
time he arrives there, for the purpose
of preventing the final absorption Of
Venezuelan territory by Great Britain,
and further to secure the restoration of
the status quo as to boundaries as it
existed prior to 1877. and to obtain con-
sent for the submission to arbitration
of the question of title to the territory
in dispute between the two govern
ments.
The key note Of the whole expedition
is found in the following extract from
a dispatch addressed to Mr.. Blaine, be-
fore the resignation of the state de-
partment portfolio, by Mr.. Perasa, the
Venezuelan minister to Washington:
"The Hon Mr.. Blaine is already aware
that agents of the government of Great
Britain have taken possession, unduly
and forcibly, of the port of Barima,
at the mouth of the Orinoco,
which up to that time had been
possessed by Venezuela, whose title to
it was and is indisputable. 1t is only
necessary to glance at the map of South
America in order to see the vast i'm
portance of this aggressive step of
Great Britain. When European mar
itime power has once obtained foot
hold at Barima it controls the Orinoco
river and it's affluents Through
these tributaries it may penetrate
as far as the Rio de la
Plata. Venezuela, is therefore not the
only American republic that is at the
mercy of the naval power that gets
control of the Orinoco river. Colombia,
Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, the Argentine
Republic and Uruguay are likewise at
it's mercy. This is not danger which
threatens Venezuela alone; it threat
ems all America and it is, perhaps, more
serious than the possession of the Pan
anna canal by a European power,
since it would render nugatory the
efforts which, through the United
States governmental now being made
by the nations of America to draw
closer their family bonds; to unity the
interests, and to have one and the
same destiny in future. All those as
pirations might be rendered fruitless
by the presence and control in the
Orinoco of so formidable naval power
as is Great Britain. Her vessels would
enter the mouth of the river and would
carry to the great centers of population
her productions. her ideas and her ex-
elusive interests"
Mr.. Perasa, in behalf of the Vene-
Zuelan government, earnestly and al
most pathetically begged the United
States government to intervene to pre-
vent the republic from final disruption
and to secure the submission to arbi-
tration of the questions in dispute.
Nevertheless the British colonial au-
thorities lost no time in perfecting
their ursurpation. Armed forces were
dispatched to the Yurari region and
took possession without resistance, the
Venezuelan inhabitants barely num-
bering 100, all the rest of the men at
the mines being English.
The Venezuelan minister at this
period. who was Mr.. Olvarria, writing
from Paris to Secretary Bayard, very
pointedly says: with these facts be-
fore you, your excellency must be con-
vinced that the British government in
such proceedings follows a preconcerted
plan with the object of gaining pos
session in the shortest time possible OF
the whole Of the territory of Venezue-
Ian Guinea and of the most i'm
portant rivers Already this movement
is no longer concealed under pretended
boundary rights; it is no longer con-
fined to the capricious lines mapped
out by the adventurous engineers upon
the charts of that important region in
obedience to the will which pays them.
England has at last declared emphatic
ally that her rights are without limit
and embrace whatever regions may be
suggested to her by her Unsuitable
thirst for conquest. She even goes
so far as to deny the validity
of railway grants comprised within
territory where not even the widest
of fancy had ever conceived that the
day would come when Venezuela's
rights thereto could be disputed. The
fact is, that until now England has re-
lied upon impunity. She holds US
weak and friendly nation, and seeks TO
make the Venezuelan coast and terri