The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-23
ENGLAND's GRAB.
No Just Ground for Claiming New
Territory in Venezuela.

New YORK tribune.
The controversy over the ownership of
the Cuyuni Valley has been complicated
with many elaborate phrases and ouIlandlsh
geographical names. So far as the essential
facts are concerned, however, NOBODY needs
to be for a single moment in doubt. TIL
case is perfectly simple. Venezuela owns
trvira au ~ erab pht a,,Ie ;f sba can hy
force if she must. Is she to succeed? That
is the whole Venezuelan question:, And 1t
is a question in which not only Venezuela
but every American nation, south and north,
is deeply interested.
South America formerly belonged to spain
and Holland. The dividing line between
the two powers was the Essequibo river.
all east of it belonging to Holland and all
west of it to Spain. The boundary was not
fixed by written treaty, put was tacitly ac-
e chhaii by either for nearly two hun
dred years. Countless historicals facts of
record and diplomatic references establish
it, in right. beyond all question. In 1910 a
large territory Immediately west of the
river reyolted, became independent of Spain,
and formed the Republic of Venezuela. 1t
Inherited all. the rights and privileges and
territorial ownership Spain had formerly
enjoyed there. 1t owned, that is to say, all
southwark to the Brazilian frontier. Four
years later, in 1914, Holland coded to Great
Britain a considerable portion of her terri
tory, to wit. that portion lying on the east
bank of the Essequibo and extending east
ward to the Corentin river, since known as
British Guiana. In this transaction Great
Britain acquired all the rights, privileges
and territorial ownership Holland had en-
joyed, but no more. The Essequibo river re-
mained the rightful dividing line between
Venezuela and British Guiana. And this
fact was substantially acknowledged by
Great Britain for sixty years. "a
Observing, however, that the entire boun-
Diary was not automatically described in
a written treaty, Great Britain early be-
gan to make various attempts to seize
Venezuelan territory. Down to 1910 she
reached out no further than the Pomaron
river, a small stream a few miles west of
the Essequibo. This advance gave her but
little more land, but it gave her entire
control of the Eseequibo and of the mouth
of it's chief affiuent, the Cuyuni. In 1910,
however, she suddenly claimed everything
up to the great Orinoco river. From this
demand she presently receded a little, and
between that time and the present has
made about a dozen claims, for as many
different boundary lines, drawn at random
here and there in the region between the
Orinoco and the Essequibo, with no espe-
cial reason for any save the taste and
fancy of the land-grabbing mapmaker. On
the best British maps of recent date the
boundary begins at the delta of the ORR
noco and follows the Amacuro river, zig
tagging southwark along the sixtieth me-
ridian. This is what is known as the orig
inal schomburgk line. 1t was made arbI-
and was soon repudiateo by the very man
who made it.
Guiana explicitly admitted that they had no
valid claim to any land west of the Poma-
ron river. But since that date discoveries
have been made of exceedingly rich depos-
it's Of gold and silver, diamonds, asphalt,
and what not, in the disputed territory, and
especially in the valley of the Yuruari river,
an af1uent of the Cuyuni. These have ex-
cited the greed of British prospectors, and
in consequence a more determined effort
than ever before is being made to grab
that region and annex it to British Guiana.
The Importance of the Orinoco, as the third
great river of the continent, commanding
practically all the trade of Venezuela, is
also recognized, and Great Britain, there
fore, seeks to control it by Selling at least
one shore of it's mouth. And for all these
claims she has nc better ground than that
ing Dutchmen built a temporary fort or two
on the Pomaron' river, and had a skirmish
with the Spaniards whose domain they
were trespasSing upon. Just as though
one should say that because some Cana
dams crossed the st. Lawrence and camped
on Saranac lake all of New York and New
England must be annexed to the Dominion.