Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1895-12-23
VENEZUELA.

4 much ct the attention Of the three coun-
tries. namely the United States, Great
| Britain and Venezeula, is very old and
very complicated. tits safe to say that
very few Of theCongTassmena ct Washing
ton, who are talking SO loudly about It,
1 know anything about thematter. There
il a similar ignorance on the part OF the
English newspapers that are writing so
vigorously about highlands rights and
what she ought to get from Venezuela
AS a matter Of fact. nobody knows
whether the disputed territoy is right
fully Great BritaIn's or Venezuela's.
The trouble originated in this manner,
Nearly three hundred years ag the
4 Dutch colonized portion OF the north
coast OF South America, In time a part
Of this territory was conquered by the
English and has been held by them ever
since, being known as British Guiana.
This British territory Joined what was
then Spanish territory, butts now the
independent republic Of Venezuela. In
time the VenezueIians won theirindepend-
ence from Spain The boundary line be-
tween their country and British Guiana
! had never been surveyed. In factnobody
III either country new where that boun-
Diary ought to be, andfor q long time no.
body cared, as it was a vast marshy and
tropical wilderness, sickly, and Inhabited
only by tribes Of wild Indians. There
was no prospect that the country would
ever be of use to civilization, and SO the
Venezueians and British Guianans
paid no attention to the boundary line
between them.
But i'll time some prospectors found
gold in this wild country, and then both.
British Guiana and Venezuela laid claim
to it, Neither side had anything with
which tJnhaclg elaims. The Eng
lith hael ,aAleritea1the rights Of the Dutch,
whom they bad conquered, and sinlilally
the Yeneauelans had snhalited the rights
Of the Spanish, whom they had con-
quored But neither the Dutch nor the
Spanish had known how far their terri
tory went The dispute dragged along
Tor many years without becoming very
grave, for not much gold was found
| Forty or fifty years ago @ surveyor
raned schomburgk, in the service Of the
! English ig I, i.est re caliee. d boundary
line between the two countries, giving
nearly all the disputed territory to the
English Bnt as he could RIM the line
wherever he chooseit was obviously Of
no legal value Nevertheless the Eng
fish row set that up as one OF the
grounds OF their claim. THIS is the
Schonburgk line that you see mentioned
so often i'll the dispatches.
More gold was found by and By and
then England and Venezuela began to
quarrel over the territory Each side
claimed it all. The English in anger
broke off all diplomatic relations with
Venezuela. That is they withdrew their
Minister, from CARCASS, the capitol Of
Venezuela, and have since transacted
all their business thrugh the German
Minister I1Otil SiUCff ESliU COi1StEiDtES, IA
| policemen into the disputed district in
order to set up a kind Of government.
Recently two or three British police
Imen at Uruan were seized by q force of
Venezuelans andcarried off, though they
were released shortly afterwards. The
English claim that the territory was
theirs and they demand $600 inden-
nifty for their arrest. They threaten to]
collect it by force if necessary. The Ven
ezuelans, of course, could not we'll wage
a successful war with great Britain and
they appeal to the United States to back
them up. They say that if they pay the
soc, 900 indemnity they will thereby con
cede that the territory belongs to Great
Britain and that they viii never do.
Now, the way the United States comes
in is this It is through the Monroe doc
trine. There is much inconception about
| this famous doctrine. In fact but few
people know much about it, It was due
to suggestion Of Great Britain. When
/ Napoleon was crushed at Waterloo III
1916 the kings OF Europe formed d
league which they called the Holy Ali
ance. They proposed to run the world
and together to repress all efforts Of the
people to limit their power. Shortly az
forwards alIthe Spanish coloniesinSouth
and Central America were III Revolt, with
prospects OF success The members Of
the Holy Alliance proposed to help
Spain put down these reyolts and sent
! around invitations to each other TO join
in. Among those invited was England.
But England, which we must remember
is our mother country, and has always
been a land Of freedom, took alarm
She was not willing to go into any such
scheme for the mere aggrendizement Of
kings: She thought that these rebellions
We're not the business Of any country ex-
cept Spain Ii Spain could put them
| J,n,, .,Ip;rrh f.. ;f sha aouJ5n't all 7,iChf