The San Francisco call., 1895-12-31

ciple that if England, with no authority
but a disputed claim, seiZes territory and
declines arbitration on it, her action does
not differ from seizing and holding new
territory in the Americas by the right of
conquest. The seizure of this South Amerl-
can territory by England, he asserted, was
an absolute violation of the Monroe doc
trine
'At the last session of Congress" said
Lodge, 81 called the attention of the Sen
ate and of the country to the manner in
which England had absorbed the islands
of the Pacific, and to the necessity Of our
controlling the Hawaiian Islands, neces-
sity which now becomes more pressing
with each succeeding day. L ask you now
to look at the Caribbean Sea.
81 ask you to note the strong naval
station which England has established at
Santa Lucia. Follow line thence to the
westward and you find Trinidad, the de-
velopment of which has been strongly
pushed of late years, then Jamaica, and,
finally British Honduras. That line faces
the South American coast. This territory
claimed from Venezuela is being pushed
steadily to the westward along that coast,
dllU llc UOllG dL III dlluS 10 IHC SOh-
troll of the mouth of the Orinoco, one of
the great river systems of South America.
The purpose of all these movements is
written plainly on the map. If successful
they will give Great Britain control of the
Spanish Main and make the Caribbean Sea
little better than British lake"
He concluded as follows:
I'VE have seen British forces at Corinto.
We know the attitude they assume in
Venezuela. They are attempting to take
land on the Alaskan boundary. They
have Just denounced the modus vivendi
and reopened in that way the perilous dis
pute of the Northeastern fisheries. 1t is
not by accident that these events have all
occurred or all come to an acute stage
within the past year. They are not due to
US, for we have committed no aggression
upon anybody. OF all these difficulties
which are now upon US, the most imme-
diate is that involved in the dispute with
Venezuela. They tell us that this terri
tory is remote and worthless. 1t is re-
mote, perhaps, but it is not worthless, for
if it had been the Venezuelan'possessio of
it would be undisturhed. But i. matters
not whether it is worthless or valuable.
The tea tax was trivial, but our fore
fathers refused to pay it because it in
volved a great principle, and the attempt
to collect it cost England her North Amer
lean colonies. The American people be-
lieve to-day Just as firmly in the principle
of the Monroe doctrine. They deem il
essential to their honor, their safety and
their interests as a Nation, and they are
prepared to defend it when it Is assailed
'Mr. President, who is responsible fol-
the unhappily strained relations between
England and the United States? As
have pointed out we have not been the ag
gressors on any of the points now in dis
pute, whether in Alaska or Venezuela
What, then, has strained our relations
The peremptory refusal to arbitrate this
question of boundary. Who gave that re-
fusal? Great Britain. We have appointed
commission, not to arbitrate between
Great Britain and Venezuela, but to in
form US, after careful investigation, what
the true divisional line, in their opinion,
should be. Who has drawn an arbitrary
line of boundary and declared that they
should not arbitrate to the east OF it? Not
the United States. but Great Britain. Ul-
timatums are what strained relations, and
they have come from Great Britain, not
from US. / believe that this question will
be peacefully settled by the good sense of
the representatives of England and the
United States, but l am very clear that
such settlement can only be reached by
action on the part of Congress and of the
President which shall be as temperate as
it is firm, and which shall maintain the
Monroe doctrine absolutely wherever it
Justly applies. That doctrine is as import
ant to us as the balance of power is to Eu-
rope and those who maintain the latter
must not attempt to break dowa the prin-
tiple which guards the Integrity of the
Americas and protects them from the in
ttrference of foreign powers"