Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-24
Join the Other Countries in Worry-
 ing Uncle Sam.
EX-CoNsUL JOHN L. WALLER
At Tamative Imprisoned by Military Authorities-Great
 Britain's Demand.

WAsHINoToN, March 23.--The Belgian government has in formed the state depart
 ment that the discriminations against food l products recently imposed have been re- | pealed by royal decree.
 ANOTHER AMERICAN IN TROUBLE. A dispatch is published here today, dated Port Louis, Meurtus, stating that MT. | John L. Waller, formerly United States consul at Tamatave, island of Madagascar, has been tried before court martial by the | French military authorities, and has been | found guilty of having been in correspond- ence with tue Hovas, and was sentenced to | twenty years inprisonment.
 | The state department officials are of tho l opinion that if this be true the French | government has exceeded it's authority aud 1 that protest from this government will follow. The trial of a civilian before a military court is not admissible, and his trial before any court for the reason stated iu the dispatch IS equally out of the ques- l tion.
 Waller is colored lawyer, who was ap- pointed from Kansas by President Harrl- son to be United States consul at Tamatave. One of the chief causes of complaint of the French authorities in Madagascar against Waller, it has heen stated, con- sisted in his having secured a concession of | over 200 square miles of the invaluable rubber forests of that great island. JAMAICA's RESENTMENT. | The department of state today received 8 report from Consul Eckford at Kingston, | Jamaica, enclosing copy of the message | of the governor of the island to the legisla- | tive council. The governor says that "the withdrawal of the government of the United States of America from the recipro- cal arrangements with this colony, entered into in 1891, and the reimposition of the duty on sugar, leaves us free to restore to our tariff some of the sources of revenue abandc ned under that arrangement. He also encloses a proposed tariff re- vision introduced into the legislative couu- ell, which in some instances increases the ported exclusively from the United States, such as hog and beef products, lumber, petroleum, grain, dairy products, etc. The increase proposed ranges from 25 to 100 per cent.
 JOHN BULLS MODEST CD DEMAND. There is absolute authority for the state ment, notwithstanding guarded and tech- nical denials, that Great Britain's demand upon Nicaragua is of such character as to merit very grave consideration on the part of the government of the United States. An examination of the text of Great Britan's declaration, "a copy of which was brought to Washington by Minister Barrios, the spe- cial agent sent to London by Nicaragua, discloses the fact that she conditions im- posed upon this feeble and impecunious re- public are harsh in the extreme.
 Great Britain demands fi5, ,0O0 (s75, ,00O) 'smsrt money" to be paid down wiluin seven weeks, that is to say, before April 16 next, for the affront to tue British crown implied in the alleged wiiful expul-
 sion of the British consul, Hatch, from
 Bluefelds. This is an imperative demand.
 There is no suggestion of arbitration or
 loop hole offered for compromise or delay. Next, Great Britain insists that the claims
 of Hatch and other British subjects for damages alleged to have been sus- tained shall be submitted to a mixed commission of three-one to be ap- pointed by Nicaragua, one by Great Britain and the third to be selected by them, but ''not to be citizen of any American re- pubiic." This stipulation as originally given out by the Nicaraguan republic was "not to be a citizen of the United States. This statement gave opportunity for g technical denial on the part of the British representatives, who said that DO such unf diplomatic and insulting discrimination had been made against the United States. But that Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil and other American republics are included with the United States in the embargo does not render the fact that the United States is deliberately shut out from partici- patton in matter of this great importance 10 the integrity of the American continent any the less serious.
 Our interests in Nicaragua, especially
 in regard to the problem of a trans-isth- milan canal, are so great that presentation of excessive demands, impossible of immedi-. ate compliance, to be followed perhaps by the seizure of territory as a guarantee of
 payment, have brought the United States
 face to face with complication which,
 taken in connection with the Venezuelan,
 boundary question, has assumed inlpor- tsnce of the first magnitude. IT. IS A HARDSHIP. The immediate question that may con : front the administration relates to the ex! :! tent to which Great Britain shall go in,sp. forcing the prompt payment of this money, knowing that Nicaragua can spare no such sum, for it's treasury, like those of most of the Jatin- American nations, barely suffices to meet current expenses. It remains to be learned whether Nicara- qua can make the pecuniary apology re- Quired or give any satisfactory assufances of it's future payment. Little doubt is ex- pressed that Great Britain will seize some. thing as security in case of g default, and Under the terms of the Clayton BulWer treaty, the United States will have 8 right to know in advance just what Great Britain proposes to do.
 No such serious international problem has been presented to a recent administra- ton as the present one.