The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-07-21
'IRUE DIVISIONAL LINE.
SCHtoeAssoRGK B0UNDIRR PRO
NoUSQED 4 FORGERY.

ssABB0RGK BoUNDARY PRO
NOUS%ED 4 FORGERY.
Most Important Papef',yyhioh Has Yet APP
peared on the Mooted NOuestion-Brief
Prepared by Counsel storrow-C Complete
ly Upsets Englands Claims-Clarifest the
Situation, and illustrates Forcibly the
Utter Pretence of salisbury's Contention.
Washington, July 20,--Venezuela's
brief, prepared by Counsel Storrow and
presented to the Venezuelan commits
sion as well as the British counsel to-
day, is the most important paper that
has so far appeared in the case. For
the first time true divisional line, in
accordance with the evidence, is laid
down, and Lord Salisbury's contention
as to settlements is shown to be mere
diplomatic bubble utterly unsupported
by law or fact and unworthy of any
consideration by the commission. He
demonstrates that there never has been
any British sovereignty in the disputed
territory; that the Dutch never gained
the slightest foothold in the Orinoco
basin, and, therefore, never transferred
what didAnot exist to Great Britain,
and caps his strong arguments by dem
onstrating that the Schomborgk line as
held by Lord Salisbury was a forgery
perpetrated by the English government
off oh 1n11ah NJ rOly' e
death
The brief opens with Lord Salisbury's
statement of January 10, 1880, that the
boundary claimed by Venezuela to the
Esequibo would involve the surrender
Of a province inhabited by 10000 British
subjects, which had been in the unin-
terrupted possession of Holland and
England successfully for two centuries.
and sweeps this away with the rettera-
tion of Venezuals offer, in asking for
arbitration, in 1890, to recognize Great
Britain's rights to it's settlements on
both banks of the Esequibo, to reserve
for itself the banks of the Orinoco,
which the treaty of Aranjuze had rec
ognized as Spanish and which every
English ministry except Lord Sails
bury's had offered to recognize, and TO
arbitrate the rest, which consisted en-
tirely of territory where, even then,
England had no settlements. The brief
assumes, for the sake of argument, that
England may have right by occupa-
ton to settlements on the alluvial lana
at the mouth of the Esequiho. but
shows that the Spanish held possession
Of all Guiana from the discovery in 1900
until Venezuela succeeded to the ter
ritory. and that Spain successfully re-
sisted all efforts Of the Dutch, as we'll
as Of Sir Walter Raleigh and other free
: hooters, to effect Judgement.
Mr.. Storrow says the British claim
has confessedlpo-no basis except occu-
patton, and tn. rules of law applied
even. to the facts alleged not only give
no support to the British attempt to
extend the boundary but are speclii-
cally and affirmatively fatal to 1t. lie
denoiishes the so-called temporary
post in the Cuyuni basin and at Barima
Point by showing that they were mere
trading stations Mr. Storrow then
quotes authorities to support the two
rules Of law which designate where,
between these actual settlements, the
boundary line shall run, as follows:
First-When either by nature or by
the habits Of settlers tract has been
defined, the rule is the first occupation
of a part is in law an entry upon and
possession Of the whole. But the entry
Of a second claimant cannot displace
the legal possession Of the first beyond
the actual occupation Of that second
Second-Where, between the settle
,nents Of two nations in country,
which form a natural barrier or line of
demarcation and which in long series
of years have not been overpassed nor
attempted to be overpassed by the act
ual settlements of either party the law
make that line the international boun-
dairy
The brief claims that such tract
and line exist and the Dutch and Eng
1ish settlements never attempted to
mass 1t until the invasion of the armed
English force at the gold discovery
about dozen years ago. The histori-
cal evidence of the Dutch and Spanish
conflicts are then discussed to show
that the Spanish were always in actual
occupation of the country up to the
small range Of mountains which the
Cuyuni breaks through to enter the Es-
eouibo. These cataracts prevented ac-
cess to the interior in the time of the
Dutch as to-day in the case OF the
English, compelling the latter to seek
ingress from the mouth of the Orinoco
for which Harrison was building the
road from Barima last month when he
was arrested in Venezuelan territory.
The Spaniards always exercised 90
minion over this great unsettled tract
nv excluding other nations from II
when when the Dutch sought to take
slaves from this section with the help
of the Carribs, as the Dutch archives
proye. the Spanish drove them Oft. de-
stroyed their stations on the upper Ese-
ouibo and imprisoned the Dutchmen
The Oregon boundary case, which made
much international law, is then applleo
To the existing dispute and the BRUSH
arguments in that celebrated case are
turned squarely against LORD sans
hurv,s present contentious by showing
that. while private occupation may ih
time give a private title, no occupation
can create sovereign dominion unless
it he directly authorized or adopted py
b;s Government at the outset ana Ioi
the announced purpose OF acquiring
sovereignty. Evidence is then aoouc-
ed to turn all Prof. Pollock arguments
- HAc