The record-union., 1895-12-07


| inal Schomburgk line of 1910, but new
and more extended line of that name,
| embracing an additional area Of over
| 10000 square miles-but that she had
no objection to referring to arbitration
any claims he might have to lands be-
yond that line. Translated into plain
language, the reply was about this:
Mere de facto occupancy, although
wrongfully made within what had
i never been disputed as Venezuelan ter
| ritory, constitutes a British title too
sacred to be submitted to arbitration.
1t is true that Lord Salisbury sought.
to justify this extraordinary attitude
of his Government by saying that it
| was lin virtue of subsequent conees-
treaties with native Indian tribes"
| But if such titles exist why withhold
/ them? Why refuse to submit them TO
| examination? / do not care to enter
in to any discussion as to their probable
| existence; for even if their actual exist
ence be granted, their legal validity is
certainly open to impeachment
| We may well ask how Holland could
have conveyed title, ''by subsequent
concessions, to what she never owned,
for by the concession of 1914 she had
already alienated all her territory per-
taining to the settlements of Dema-
rara, Barbice and Essequibo." And
tory, it would be mark of supereroga-
tion to prove that Venezuela, by her
successful revolt and act of independ-
ence in 1910, succeeded to all territorial
rights within her limits which Spain
had before the revolt. Furthermore, 1t
may well excite surprise that any mod
ern jurist or statesman of Lord Sails
tury's high repute, should seriously
contend that native Indian tribes" are
competent to convey title to eminent
| domain over territory in which they
| have but right of occupancy, eXtin-
guishable only by the discovering Eu-
ropean nation or its legal successors.
He at least ought to know that on the
ldiscoyery of the American Continent,
the principle adopted by European ma
| tionS in order to avoid conflicting set
| Elements and consequent wars, was
| that discovery gave title to the Govern
ment by whose subjects or by whose
authority it was made; that the title
thus acquired was good as against all
other European Governments, and
might be consummated at any time by
actual possession; that it gave to the
| discovering nation or its legal success
| sor the sole right of acquiring the soil
| from the Indian occupants, and of eS-
! tablishing settlements thereon, and
| that this was a right which all Euro
pean nations asserted for themselves,
sented. Nor will it do to say that the
OK inion of mankind may have changed
on this point with the progress of civ
! iliZation; for the right of nations to
countries discovered three and half
| centuries ago must be determined by
| the law of nations as it was then under
stood and universally recognized.
This is a principle too fundamental,
and too firmly established by usage, to
admit of discussion
Thus eliminated from all irrelevant
matter, the question before us is no
longer one of mere disputed boundary.
| 1t is rather a question of conquest. The
same reasoning by which England
! seeks to justify her seizure of Venezue-
| Ian Guayana, and her Notifications of
the Orinoco at Point Barama and at
| the mouth of the Amacura, would
! justify her seizure of Barcelona and
| Caracas, or indeed the whole of Vene-
zuela for that matter; since both of the
| last named places were once subjected
to raid and pillage by Dutch and Eng
| lish pirates, as We're the ancient Span
| ish colonial towns and settlements in
the Orinoco Valley, and there were not
/ wanting native Indian tribes" in
every province of the republic with
whom ancient treaties" might have
! been made, or claimed to have been
made, by England.
! NOf is the country WHICH Is I0uS De-
| ing dismembered and despoiled in some
remote and inaccessible corner of the
world with which we neither have nor
| hope to have any commercial or polit-
! ical relations. 1t is at our very doors, so
| to speak. 1t is our nearest South Amer
lean neighbor. It's political capital, one
of the most picturesque and beautiful
| on the continent, is less than six days
| journey from Washington. It's seaportS
are less than five days sail from New
| York, and are nearer still to our South
Atlantic and Gulf ports. Even the very
territory now usurped by British au-
| thority, is very much nearer to us than
| is either Alaska or the Isthmus of Pan
anna. These conditions alone, even were
/ others wanting, would fully justify our
Intervention.
But there are still higher considera-
tions. All standard authorities agree
| that when the territorial acquisitions
and foreign relations of a nation threat
en- the peace and safety of other
| States, the right of intervention is COM
plete 1t then becomes a moral duty to
interfere to prevent the threatened mis-
/ chief, rather than wait until the mis-
chief is accomplished and then inter-
| pose to remedy it. And this accords
well with the traditions and conserva-
| tive character of our Government.
Early in the present century, inspired
J
and other Spanish American colonies
threw off the yoke of European bond
age and became free and independent
! States. Very soon thereafter an alli-
| ance was formed by the principal mon
'archies of Europe, the Interior purpose
of which was the re-cOnquest of those
| States and the partition of their terri
tory among the signatory powers. That
bold scheme was defeated, and the new
republics saved from the fate of Poland
| only by the timely Intervention of the
United States. That was at time, too,
when our territorial area, our popula-
| ton and our wealth and resources were
less than one-sixth what they are to-
| day And yet that act so far from be-
/ ing characterized as species of lingo
/ ISM, has always been applauded as
one Of the wisest and most conservative
in our national history.
Have conditions so changed that we
must now reverse our foreign policy,
and stulify ourselves by a pusillani-
nous abandonment Of the great prin-
ciples then enunciated to the world?
/ Surely the doctrines then officially pro-
! claimed by President Monroe, with the
subsequent concurrence and cordial
support of England herself, have lost
none OF their force and Importance by
the lapse of time; and by every consid-
/ Grafton of reason and justice, both Gov
ernments ought to be as much inter
ested as ever before in the conserva-
ton of status the wisdom of which
/ has been demonstrated by the expert
ences of three-quarters of a century.
An abandonment of those principles
now by the United States and a repudi-
alton of that status now by England,
would be not only acts of bad faith dis
| honorable to both, but they would
necessarily involve international COM
! plications and disputes mo OF less
disastrous TO both. Neither of lie two