New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-30
THE MESSAGE IN ENGLAND
ILLUSTRATING THE FACILITY WITH
WHICH NATIONS MISUNDTR-
STAND EACH OTHER.
London, December 20.

>'NNN''P"hiEu ny IL bHHrp lall OF temperature In
the social atmosphere which Americans were
breathing In London On the morning Of its ap-
pearance In print manners were brusque tsmpers
uncertain. voices tremulous with irritation The
Engishman passed his American acquaintance
IN the street with shrug OF the shoulders and
Instant nod. In the clubs the American visitor
was stared at as an irresponsible person to whom
hospitality and recognition had been vouchsafed
IN an unguarded moment without adequate IN
Vestgation. If an American were breakfasting
OF Iunching In corner of restaurant he was
forced to hear the Venezuela question discussed
With heated partisanship and the action OF Presi-
dent Cleveland condemned as an eectioreering
manoeuvre-a vulgar exhibition Of "Jingo spread
eageism." John Bull was angry on that first
day and disposed to be both disputatious and
quarrelsome. He was convinced that the Presi-
Gent of the United States had wantonly affronted
the dignity of the British Empire
The British lion. while roaring Nercely when
ever 1t Is attacked is also meditative beast 1t
was not long before the Englishman wanted to
know what all the trouble was about. Until the
Message was published he had not concerned him
self about the Venezuela question All that he
knew about 1t was that there had been a dispute
OF long standing a boundary line Then
there was the Monroe Doctrine The Englishman
ala not profess to understand it. 1t a curious
Yankee notion invented by one Of the early
American Presidents 1t vas first proclaimed in
Presidential Message, and the Americans were
always talking about It, especially In a political
canvass; but 1t did not have the force Of inter
national law. 1t did not enter into the serious
diplomacy Of European nations. 1t q form OF
Jngoism-a scatter-brain eXpedient for twisting
the lions tail and for working up the Irish vote
In a Presidential canvass. These were the hazy
were suddenly startled By the Message of their
favorite American statesman, whom they had
been persistently applauding and hatterng for
eleven years. and who had rewarded their adula-
ton by suddenly turning upon them and threat
ening to make war upon them over the Venezuela
question and the Monroe Doctrine.
Naturally the Englishman wanted to know
more about these mysteries of the American
tinent. Lord Salisbury's dispatch the Ven
ezue!a-Guiana dispute was available smultan
eously with the Message, and 1t was eagerly read
The English title to British Guiana was derived
from conquest of the Dutch settlements and
really extended some distance up the Orinoco
but in 1910 Mr.. Schomburgk had surveyed line
which had become the rreducibe minimum of
occupation and possession. Nothing within that
line could be submitted tC arbitration, although
Venezuela had not sanctioned his boundary
territories stretching far as the Essequibo and
the English claims TO disputed lands toward the
Orinoco now in the possession OF the republic had
never been withdrawn and were still pending
This was the British explained by the
Foreign Office and in the Embellishments view It
irrefutable. and there nothing more to be
said about it. Mr. Chamberlain had talked the
matter over with the Governor of British Guiana,
and Lord Salisbury had been making researches
in the archives of Spain and Holland and Mr..
Olney had been misled by evidence drawn from
Venezuela only! There was nothing to arbitrate
at least. nothing inside the Schomburgk line.
IGNORANCE OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
Having mastered the British side Of the Venez-
uela boundary dispute--which. of course, was
the only portion of the case worthy Of serious
attention-the English searcher after truth at
tempted to inform himself with equal thorough
ness respecting the Monroe Doctrine Lord
Salisbury's main dispatch dealt with It in mega
tive way. showing that It had no bearing upon
the Venezuela boundary. that 1t was not inter-
national law. that it had never before been
introduced by the American State Department,
and that it did not amount to anything. any
way Negative information is never wholly
satisfactory to a patient investigator. While
even unarswerable. it did not tend to throw
much light upon the Monroe Doctrine. about
which the Americans had been talking for sew
enty years.
The Presidents Message. when the English
reader had recovered from his first attack of
indignation sufficiently to be able to examine 1t
critically. seemed to involve absolute dictation
to q European Power. England had declined to
submit the Venezuela case to arbitration; and
President Cleveland had recommended the APP
rointment of an American Commission to find
out where the boundary really was. When it
should be discovered, the Englishman read
the Message, the Americans would be ready to
fight TO keep the English on their own side of 1t.
II this were the Monroe Doctrine. as the Eng
lishnan looked it, 1t licensed the United States
to insult European Powers and, under threat OF
war to make demands which no self-respecting
nation could accept without humiliation and DIS
grace Surely the United States had not peen
the sole arbitrator Of the western hemisphere
since the time Of James Monroe without pro-
test from some quarter. President Cleveland
must have overstated or msapplied the Monroe
Doctrine in some way
So II came to pass that with the rise In tenn
nerature after the freezing day on which the
Message saw the light In England, many an
American was asked to explain what the Mon
roe Doctrine really was. The answers were
probably as various the opinions OF those VINO
gave them; but one of these replies Is worth re-
heating. not perhaps. because 1t is in any sense
on authoritative statement Of the case, but De-
cause il was Ineligible to the questioner, ana
NOT only silenced, but satisfied him. This ques-
TONER was a most uncompromising bri'on' VINO
was IN a furious state of mind over the Presi-
dent's Message and utterly at loss 10 UNDER
stand what was meant by the Monroe Doctrine
the answer is quoted by permission, and runs
as follows:
PLAIN ANSWER TO ENGLISHMEN.