Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-02
THE VENEZUELA DISPUTE History of the Guiana Boundary
 Line Trouble. GREED FOR GOLD STIMULATE British Investors to Attempt to Annex the Carata Gold Fields Which Venezuela
 Inherited From Spain.


 lieved to exist there. It was an adven- turous, but fruitless quest of which, on returning, he wrote an account. Today in that same region modern Britons have found gold mines in place of the city of gold and gems their ancestors sought. The gold hunting mania is at the bottom of Great Britains present deter imitation to despoil Venezula of a large tract of territory that she claims.
 Mr. Hugh Watt, chairman and chief shareholder in the New Chili Gold Min ing company, which was formed a dozen years ago and more to buy mining rights in the Venezuelan district of Caratal, once showed clearly how the gold-hunt- ing business was involved in the bound ary dispute. Our shareholders, he said, as reported in the Mining World, do not consider their stock at present to be of much value, but let them con- slider what 1t will be with their property under British control, with British line of railway and telegraph at command why, it will be worth f5,000,000 sterling, and the shares can be had today at bagatelle price of three shillings per share"
 This statement, made long before the boundary controversy with Venezuela had reached it's present acute stage, sug- gests the motives which stimulate Brit iSh investors, as well as the coloniSts of Demarara to attempt to annex the Cara tai gold fields. It is probably true that, while the mining dues might not be heaV- fer under British than under VeneZue- Ian rule, railway communication to the mines under the former would be open sooner; but that fact affords no excuse for taking away any of Venezuela's s land.
 As is well known, Venezuela inherited the territorial right of Spain when she proclaimed her independence in 1910, and Great Britain, in 1914, acquired the Dutch colonists of the EsSequibo. Prior to that period the boundary line had not been definitely fixed, but In 1891 an extradition treaty signed by the Spaniards and Dutch stipulated in general that the Orinoco col cnies belong to the former and the Esse- quibo to the latter. It might seem that the watershed of the respective rivers would be included under this general provision of owenershp. But it hapens that while the Essequibo runs north, very large tributary running seaStaWrd enters 1t near its mouth This tributary Is the river Cuyuni, has it's head waters among the Caratal gold fields, and if its watershed should also be included in that of the Essequibo 1t would take in the enormous track west of the latter river, which Great Britain now claims. Venezuela, therefore. insists that what was meant by the Essequibo colonies
 
 that river.
 But even admitting the watershe'' he ory, we find that this would limit Great Britain to the gold fields and other ter ritory south of a range of mountains that runs between the Orinoco and Guy uni, and generally parallel to both. It would confine the coast possessions of British Guiana to the Moruco, which Is perhaps two score miles northwest Of the mouth of the Essequibo But, as ID, &at. hoe yt.fN6 ed her domains beyond the Imataca mountains and seized the coast line far up to the right bank of the Orinoco, oc- cupying Punta Barima, at the mouth of the latter river, and, of course, un- occasionally in it's watershed
 Now a point in the Venezuelan case Is that in 1886 the British legation sponta- neously recognized Venezuela's sover- eighty at Punta Barima by asking her to build lighthouse there for the safety of navigation. But in 1S4l Engineer Schomburgk, for reasons best known to himself, chose to run an arbitrary boun- dary line, in Englands interests. far west of the ESSeQuibo, and far enough northward to take in Punta Barima as British, and so to give Great Britain a hold on the mouth of the Orinoco. At Venezuela's prompt demand the British authorities disclafmed this line as for mal assumption of possession. and said it was a step preliminary to settling the boundary; and thereupon the posts and other marks were removed.
 During the last half century Great Rritain's encroachments have increased, and the exploring of the Caratal and Yurnari gold mines has increased the trespass AS is well known, Great Brit ain has of late insisted on holding every thing east of the Schomburgk line, while expressing her willingness to put to arbi- tration the territory west of that line. But it will be seen that she thus insists on her strategic and commercial hold upon the mouth of the Orinoco in spite of the clear treaty provision that Spain should have all the Orinoco colonies. while being willing. for the sake of secur- ing that hold. to admit doubt regard ing the ownership of the land around the head waters of the Cuyuni, although the latter might with some reason be at least claimed by her under the watershed theory
 Even MT. Hugh Watt. in a letter all ready referred to- considered the Punta Marina, or coast line. claim as not in accordance with ancient treaties. He insisted that Hollands founding of the so-called colony of New Zealand in 1913. her grants of land to the Dutch West h. dia company in 1921, and her concessions to a German colony In or near the ter ritory now disputed substantiated the British claims to the Caratal gold dis tricts He considered the Imataca range as the natural and actual boundary fixed by old treaties. But he strikingly added that, should the government, however. so as to effect a peaceable and amicable settlement, decide to declare by the river now called Yuruari, I would suggest that the Punta Barima be given to Venezuela, so that she could command the mouth of the Orinoco, which I do not hesitate to say was intended by the treaty of Nun ster." It is palpable that the interest = MT. Watt was to sacrifice the coast ne and Punta Barima claims of Great J.ritain to those of the gold fields of the interior, in which he was most interested ; yet the reasons which he gives against the former are not on that account the less strong.
 Turning now to the claims of England to the gold field area of the interior, it is to be observed that even some British writers oppose the pretensons of their government. Several years ago Mir. Ed ward D. Matthews. in critcizing the views of MT. Watt, pointed out that a map published in New York by Messrs. c. 2. Pond and w. R. Kyle, based upon the Codazzl atlas, the British admiralty charts and studies by Blunt and Rosa. traced the boundary along the left bank