San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-10-04

the Herald from Washington says:
The great international question
of the hour is the Venezuelan
boundary line dispute. Secretary
Olney has prepared a dispatch to
Ambassadors Bayard, which Will
soon bring the matter to an issue.
This dispatch is of most positive
and unequivocal nature. AS soon
as it shall be placed before the
British government it 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 the most sacred traditions of
the government, an enforcement
of the Monroe doctrine.
Secretary Olney's dispatch is in
substance declaration in the
most positive language that the
United States will never consent
to British occupation of the dis
puted territory in Venezuela, I'M
less that nations right thereto is
first determined by arbitration.
While this declaration is substan-
TALLY the same as that which was
made some months ago and to
which the British foreign office
replied with a statement that
while England's right to
part of the territory in ques-
tion could be submitted to
arbitration, the right to an
other part of the region in question
could not be submitted to such adj
Indication. 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 territory
in dispute should be submitted to
arbitration, or whether by conced-
ing England's contention we
should virtually abandon the field
and leave Venezuela to fight it out
alone. Two more serious questions
have presented themselves to an
American administration within
recent years.
The decision of the president and
his cabinet advisers, after careful
discussion and painstaking in
vestigation, is that the bold and
consistent policy shall be adopted,
and this policy has been fOrmulat-
ed in the dispatch which Ambas-
sador Bayard will lay before the
British government, as soon as he
returns from his present journey
to Scotland. The dispatch meets
England's rejoinder with a re-
affirmation Of the principle of the
original contention, expressed in
phrases which leave no possibibil-
ity of doubt as to the meaning or
the earnestneSS of the United
States. 1t does more. In polite
but firm and significant words
Secretary Olney declares it to be
the belief of the United States gov
eminent that the territorial claims
which Great Britain has set up in
Venezuela are in the nature of an
attempt to seize territory on the
American continent to which she
has no legal right. The secretary
points out two horns to the diem
ma, leaving Great Britain to choose
which it will accept.
First-If the quarrel with Vene-
zuela is an ordinary boundary dis
pute, having it's origin in faulty
descriptions, imperfect surveys or
other misunderstanding, refusal
to arbitrate the same is contrary
to the presidents set by Great
Britain herself and contrary to
the practice of all civilized ma
tions.
Second-If on the other hand, as
appears to be the case, and is the
belief of the president of the United
States, the dispute as to the loca-
ton of boundary line is a mere
disguise under which Great Britain
is attempting by superior force to
extend her territorial possessions
in America, this is directly violat-
i've of the Monroe doctrine, and
will never be submitted to by the
United States.
This is the substance Of the dis
patch, which in all probability
will soon become one of the most
famous dispatches ever sent out
from the American state depart
ment. 1t is a direct, positive and