The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1892-09-17
WALKERS MISSION.
Keynote of the Expedition To
Venezuelan Waters
British OverreachIng In South America
Must Cease, and the On-Quoted
Monroe Doctrine be Put
Into Practice.

Into Practice.
WASHINGTON. Sept 12-There ar
good reasons for believing that tn,
sealed instructions, which were yester
day delivered to Admiral Walker OF
board the Chicago. intrusted him with
mission more important, perhaps
than any that had been confided to ar
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
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 II is only
necessary to glance at the mapof 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 a foot
hold at Barima it controls the Orinoco
river and its affiuents. Through
these tributaries it may penetrate
as far as the Rio de Ia
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
Renubi;c and ! I-rnonn= -Glra-riss- at
rity II was :Ga,:e lsnoven two oh
''''e f'ioatas ago that q. .oeo, coo was +
FOR building purposes and thns-e
further gifts To the university ,la.l-
w" upon raising t.,is Gur. In a fer,
Eo weeks saGJ,05O have been contrl he
used a:ld the s+'.O5j lacking has bec,u Gu
'Grg an:asi. 4 few years ago this ~
10, havc been considered n rrincely he
,.itJlFTa FTaIfS;f tafiii taafid to nave Ole 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 a 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.
The encroachments which have thus
accumulated had been long pursued.
On the 9th of November, 1887, the leg
islature by direct instigation, as it ap-
pears, of the queens proctor under in
structions from the colonial office, passed
an act asserting British jurisdiction
over the gold-mining district of Car
atal, at the headwaters of the Yurari
river; and on the 3lst of December of
the same year the governor of British
Guinea issued decree denying the
NdiiuitN Va a ON thc fChC-
zuelan government for a railroad to
Guachipi, in the Caratal district, on
the ground that IL passed sin and over
certain territories and lands forming
part of the colony of British Guinea
This assumption was referred to at
the time by Secretary Bayard in dis
patch to our minister in London as one
which necessarily gives rise to grave
disquietude and creates an apprehen-
sion that the territorial claim does not
follow historical traditions or evidence,
but is apparently Indefinite" and Mr.
Bayard authorized Minister Phelps to
express to Lord Salisbury ''apprehen-
sion lest the widening pretensions of
British Guinea to possess territory over
which Venezuelan jurisdiction has
never heretofore been disputed" might
not "oblige the good disposition of the
United States to aid in a settlement to
give place to feeling of grave con-
Germ"
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