The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-14
VENEzUELRS FIELDS OF GOLD
THE MAGNET THAT EXCITED JOHN
BULLS CUPIDITY PLAIN.

low Metal That the British Be
came NOticeabIy AEgressive-VaI-
uabIe Papers Bearing on the Dis
pute En- Route to This COuntry's
Commission.
Washington March 13.-The Venezuelan
| commission. at its regular meeting to-
| day, with all the members present, virtu-
| ally reached the conclusion that the main
| points at issue in the dispute hinged on
| documents lying in the royal archives of
| Spain and Holland, and perhaps some 9TH
| er countries, and that while such docu-
ments would probably be quoted by each
OF the disputants in support of the con-
Trajectory claims presented. the duty
would devolve on the commission not only
| to verify by actual examination all such
/ citations, but if practicable to develop con-
temporary documents which might throw
| strong side lights upon the evidence sub
mitted. While definite action was post
| poned until the full British and Vene-
zuelan cases shall have been formally
brought under consideration, there re-
mains no doubt that some of the COM
missioners, or at all events the secretary
| of the commission, Mr.. Mallet-Prevost,
acting under its direction, will be sent to
| Madrid and The Hague. 1t it expected
| that this determination is not due to the
| alleged discovery OF Interpretations in de-
| crees and treaties already in the comms-
| Slons possession, but from the conviction
| that the final decision of the commission
ought not to be open to any attack as to
| the inconclusiVeness of the pivotal evil
| dence upon which the decision will in all
| probability be found to depend.
| In preliminary Investigations of the COM
! mission they have been confronted with
| numerous diametrically conflicting maps,
| and translations. While geographical dis
| crepancies are within the power of the
| commission to harmonize through the
| enormous mass of corroborative charts it
| commands, the comparative indecipheri-
! bllty and partial illegibility of royal de-
| crees are thought to be matters which
| necessitate personal and expert examina-
| tions.
The commission expects to be in possess
| sion of the British blue book, as well as the
| greater part of NeneZuelas case, early
| next week and in view of this anticipation
| Mr.. Coudert and President Gilman, who
| have hitherto spent little time in Wash
| lngton, Will remain here for the present
| for daily meetings, at which the Weighing
| and comparison of evidence Will be prose-
| cuted continuously. No one of the commits
| soners has yet had an opportunity to care
/ fully examine the British case, as the only
| available copy that has reached them was
| one of the advance edition sent by Am
| baSsador Bayard to the state department,
which may contain typographical or other
| errors incident to hasty preparation The
| regular copies for the commission will ar
| rive here in all probability tomorrow
| evening, or on Monday next. While access
| to a state department copy has been al
lowed there has been no opportunity to ex-
anime it fully.
The Venezuelan minister has been noti-
fed by cable from his government that the
first installment of official evidence for
the consideration of the high commission
| left La Guayra on the steamer Philadel-
phia on the 10th inst, and is due to arrive
in New York next Tuesday. The docu-
! ments relate exclusively to the period near
| the close of the eighteenth century, taken
| from the royal Spanish archives, and
| have not heretofore been accessible to
| Great Britain, or at least are not quoted
| in the British blue book. They are put
| forward to demonstrate the inadmissibili-
| ty of Dutch claims to any territory west
| Of the Essequibo. A large number of au-
| thenticated official maps covering the
| same period are included, none of which
| have heretofore been produced, as no occa-
/ sion for their presentation has ever oc-
| Cured.
Minister Andrade has also been inform
| ed that the records of the Venezuelan le-
cations at Rome, Madrid, London and
| ParlS contain many documents bearing on
'the controversy, and these will all be
| placed at the commissions disposal in a
SnoII SToIt llIne' 1nose from Paris, Rome and
| MADRID IN a few weeks. The agents of
| venezuela have presented to the NeneZue-
| ian commission, among other documents,
| the oIficial report of the ministry of the
| interior at Caracas to the ministry of for
| eign relations dated May %, 1890 consist
| ing OF forty printed pages, covering
| the radical advances of the British
| colonial offices into the disputed territory
| following the rich discoveries of gold
| from 1885 to 1890, as investigated by a
| national commission appointed by Vene-
| zuela to make scientific exploring expe-
| dition in Guiana territory. The elaborate
| report Of this committee is now for the
| first time disclosed, and shows, according
| to the testimony Of British magistrates
| and others in the territory that as late
| as 1888 no British settlements existed even
| as far west as the Pumaron river AS
| late as 1888 the settlements are referred
! to by the English as the recently ac-
| quired district" and the colonial govern
ie fC ha firaur
| ity in every way to rush emigrants into
| the Interior its success in some degree
being shown by these figures of gold ex-
| portsI 1885, 939 ounces; 1885, 6,51S ounces;
| 1887, ,906 ounces; 1885, 14,510 ounces, and
| for the first six months of 1889 14624
| ounces. These dispatches, and especially
| those relating to NeneZuela's formal pro-
| test against the usurpation, seem to place
| Viscount GOrmanston, Governor of Rrif-
| ish Guiana IN the nght OF suppressing the
| facts, although it is shown that he was in
| constant communication with Lord Sal
| isbury. Testimony is adduced to demon
] strate that the British authorities were
! most generous to the Indians, thereby Sc
| curing access to the gold districts in the
| interior deserted by Venezuelans, who
| were attracted by Establishments to the
| coast settlements.
| The publication has been submitted
/ without argument, Venezuela relying al
| together upon the simple statements of
| the facts.
| London, March 1S.-The st. James Ca
zette says: "The Venezuela dispute will
not be settled until the United States shall
no longer insist that we must arbitrate
| before it upon terms fixed by itself The
more the British and American nations
| understand that this demand is unwar-
| rantable, the greater the likelihood that
! there will be a settlement upon other
| lines than the ignominious retreat OF Great
| Britain"
Sir e. T. Gourley, liberal, member for
! Sunderland, asked the government in the
| House Of Commons to-day to explain how
it was that certain quotations in the Vene-
| zuelan blue book marked with inverted
| comas as having been taken from docu-
! ments embodied in the appendix did not
| correspond with the words in the docu-
ments. He also desired to know why in
i more than one case the sense of the origf-
| nal passages had been departed from
| Sir Richard Webster. attorney general
| replied that the quotations were material
| parts of the case and were correct The
/ slight verbal discrepancies were due to a
/ hurriedly revised translation of some of
I the documents. and there had been no
! time to make corresponding alterations in
| the quotations The error in one case con-
/ sisted in putting a summary within quota
| ton marks.
ruruev,s Condition CrfffcoF