Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-14
MORGAN
On the Venezuelan and Cuban Questions.
 Plain Talk.


 Senator Morgan of Alabama, chairman
 of the foreign relations committee, and
 an authority on international law, in an
 interview called attention to Lord Sails
 bhry's claim that Great Britain had ac-
 quired rights in the disputed territory
 adjoining Venezuela by treaty with the
 native tribes. He said:
 For the last three quarters of a cen
 tury Great Britain has been forming
 whenever she could little by-arrange-
 ments with Indian tribes that had chief
 tains and were regularly constituted into
 tribes It was in that way that she rec
 ognized the Mosquitoes. Such treaties
 with such people are made right in the
 teeth of the well-understood and well-ac-
 cepted doctrine of Great Britain, Ger
 many, France and Spain, and all the
 American states which is, that when any
 country has acquired by conquest or dis
 covery any territory, the Indian tribes found therein are considered as occu-
 pants at will of the sovereign and are not regarded as nations having sover- eighty, such sovereignty inuring to the nation that discovered or conquered that
 territory. A recognition of the sover- eighty of such Indian tribes has been re- garded as breach of the international
 rights of other nations.
 For this reason, any claims of Great
 Britain within Venezuela, based upon
 private treaties with Indian chiefs. are
 of no value and should not be recognized as being in conformity with international law. I think Great Britain is prepared now to adjust that Venezuelan boundary question on the lines that were surveyed by Schomburg. When that line was es- tablished, the British colonists com menced moving out to it and making set dement's and particularly taking up gold claims, and Venezuela, in her weakness, has been compelled to stand by and see n11rCJIq6 until Great Britain sets up a claim similar to that of a man who has occupied for years territory be- longing to some one else.
 "I would suppose that unless Great Britain moves to the north and westward of the Schomburg line it is hardly likely that the United States can be involved in the controversy, but if she is ever in- volved in such controversy the British government ought to be compelled to avow or disavow the dependence of vari- ous petty chiefs England might go to Alaska and enter into treaty with the chiefs of Indian tribes there with as much reason as she could make treaties with such chiefs located in the south." The gold fields and the territory at the mouth of the Orinoco. which was the key to the control of the entire central DOT tion of Venezuela, were, Senator Morgan said things that inspired Great Britain's $ course. In the interview the senator also urged that 1t should be made a part of the foreign policy of the United States to secure an understanding by which we could deal in diplomatic matters directly with Canada and Cuba instead of Great Britain and Spain.
 Turning to Cuba, the senator was asked: Do you think congress would be favorable to the purchase of Cuba If such proposition were acceptable to Spain ?' q have no right to suppose congress would. I can only suppose that Spain, like every other nation, will in the end consult the highest interest of her peo- pie, and she may find it to be a patriotid duty to free herself from the control of Cuba, which has more influence on poli- tics in Spain today than any local ques- thing about the acquisition of Cuba as an addition to our territory. but I should want 1t for the military strength 1t would give us."
 l. 'Is England liable to interpose any ob- jection to the United States acquiring Cuba or to taking any active part in the struggle now going on?"
 That will depend on whether she thinks she can make anything by 1t. She would not like to do anything that would result in an open rupture with the United States Great Britain Is in no position to use coercion or threats In her policy toward the United States. She has re- sorted to very different policy in later years, and she now seeks her ends by ne- gotiation. She has so many possessions near our coast that war would be a great disaster to her because no matter how much our commerce might be in- jured by her navy the conclusions of that war would give Canada and the islands off our coast in the hands of the United fot