Rocky Ford enterprise., 1895-10-10
OLNEY TO SALISBURY
THE MONROE DOCTRINE STILL
LIVES.
England Must Submit Her Claims to Ven
ruelan Territory to Arbitration OF
Take the Consequences.

New York, Oct. A special to the
Herald from Washington says: The
great international question OF the hour
Is the Venezuelan boundary dispute
Secretary Olney has prepared dis
patch to Ambassador Bayard which will
soon bring the matter to an issue. This
dispatch is of most positive and un-
eQulvocal nature. As soon as 1t shall
be placed before the British govern
ment, 1t will raise an issue which can
be settled only by the retreat of one or
the other government. The stand taken
by the United States in this dispatch
Is one which involves the Oldest and
most sacred traditions of the govern
ment-the enforcement of the Monroe
doctrine.
Secretary Olney's dispatch Is In sub
stance a declaration in the most pos
tive language that the United States
will never consent to British occupancy
of disputed territory In Venezuela, un-
less that nations right thereto is de-
termined by arbitration. For this
declaration is substantially the same
as that which was made some months
ago, and to which the British foreign
office replied with the statement that
while England's right to part of the
territory in question could be submitted
to arbitration, the right to another part
Of the region in question could not DC
submitted to such adjudication.
When Great Britain took this ground,
the question which President Cleveland
and his advisers had to decide was
whether the United States was bound
by the Monroe doctrine, and by her
dignity, to insist that all of the terri
H., l,g, -
arbitration, or whether by concedins
England's contention we should vir-
tually abandon the field and leave Ven
zuela to fight 1t out alone. Few more
serious questions have presented them
selves to an American administration
within recent years.
The decision OF the president and his
cabinet, after careful discussion and
painstaking investigation, is that bold
and consistent policy shall be adopted,
and this policy has been formulated il
the dispatch which Ambassador Bay.
ard will lay before the British govern
ment as soon as he returns from his
present Journey to Scotland.
The dispatch meets England's ra-
toindnr with reatfirmation of the prin-
ciple OF the original contention express.
ed in phrases which leave no posi-
the earnestness of the United States.
1t does more. In polite. but firm and
significant words, Secretary Olney de-
clares 1t to be the belief of the United
States government that the territorial
claims which Great Britain has set up
in Venezuela are in the nature of an al.
tempt TO seize territory on the American
continent to which she has no legal
right. The secretary points out two
horns OF the dilemma. leaving Great
Britain to choose which it will accep,
1. II the quarrel with Venezuela is
an ordinary boundary dispute, havinl
its origin in faulty descriptions, imper.
feet surveys or other misunderstood
ing, a refusal to arbitrate the same II
contrary to precedents set by Great
Britain herself. and contrary to tht
practice of all civilized nations.
. II, on the other hand, as appear;
to be the case, and, as Is the belief OF
the president Of the United States, til,
dispute as to the location of bound
ary line is mere disguise under which
Great Britain Is attempting by superior
force to extend her territory in Amer
lea. this is directly violative of the Mon
roe doctrine. and will never be sub
mitted to by the United States.
This is the substance of the dispatch
which, in all probability, will soon BIZ
come one of the most famous dispatches
ever sent out from the American State
department. 1t is direct, positive ani
practical application of the Monroe
doctrine in its broadest aspect to tht
quarrel between Great Britain and Ven
ezuela. 1t commits the United State.
to position which must be adhered to