The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-06-06


the United States to indulge in the ex-
travagant procedure that number of our
hot-headed and thoughless citizens insisted
upon.
THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE BETWEEN GREAT
BRITAIN AND VENEZUELA.
Following closely upon the Corinto incl
dent the Venezuela boundary dispute was
soon forced to the front in most compli-
Gated aspect.
A rehearsal of this important question
in all its points would only prove wearisome
to our readers and consume unnecessary
space and time. The details of the con-
troversy are TOO fresh in the minds of the
American public to give minute diagnosis
of it, and we shall touch it as lightly as
possible and merely repeat the essential
elements of the same before passing on to
the correspondence between Lord Salisbury
and Secretary Olney.
A careful report of the boundary dis
pute was prepared about three years ago
for the bureau of American republics, and
was given in handbook which it issued
on Venezuela, and from extracts from that
report we have the following
1.-The province of Guiana, forming Il
part of the captaincy general of Caracas
and pretaining to Spain, was originally
bounded on the east by the Atlantic ocean
and on the south by the Amazon river.
During the long war waged by the
Dutch to free themselves from Spanish
/
dominion they occupied and successfully
held Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice and
Surinam, within this province Of Guiana,
which places by the treaty Of Munster in
164S were confirmed by the Netherlands.
The Dutch, in violation of this treaty,
made excursions into Spanish Guiana, but
were invariably opposed by the Spanish
forces. That they never considered them
selves legitimate owners of any OF the ter
ritory west of the Essequibo river is quite
apparent from the fact that in the session
of these places to Great Britain, in 1914,
they simply transferred their colonies of
Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice without
designating any fixed boundary lines.
After the war of independence, or in
1922, the government of Venezuela sue
ceeded to the rights of Spain in the terri
tory west of the Essequibo river, and has
always persistently claimed it.
In 1886 Mr.. Robert Ker Porter, the
British Charge d Afaires at Caracas, for
mally requested the Venezuelan govern
ment to establish light house on Point
Barina, at the mouth of the 0rinoco river,
on territory that is now in dispute, although
the English government declared in 1887,
fifty years later, that this request of its
representative was never communicated to
or opposed by it.
In 1871 Sir Robert Shornburgh an
engineer employed by the British govern
ment, made number of surveys in this
territory west of the Essequibo river and
planted posts and other marks of his oper-
ations, which so excited public opinion in
Venezuela that the English government
ordered their removal and obliteration.
Since that time Venezuela has been CON
stant in her efforts to secure a treaty
whereby the dispute might be arbitrated
and settled
In 1874 preliminaries were arranged
for the negotiation of a treaty, and the
Venezuelan plenipotentiary, relying upon
history, treaties and maps, claimed the
Essequibo river on the frontier, to which
the British plenipotentiary responded by
proposing the Morocco river as the bound
ary, thus, as we stated leaving Venezuela
in full possession of the mouth of the Ori-
noco river. For this session of territory
the latter presented no claim whatever.
In 1850 the public mind of Venezuela
was again exasperated by information to
the effect that Great Britain proposed to
seize Venezuelan Guiana Mr.. Wilson,
British Charge d Afaires in Venezuela,
hastened to contradict it, and affirmed that
his government had no intention of occu-
pying the territory in dispute and that it
would not do so. At the same time he
asked for and obtained a declaration to the
same effect from the Venezuelan govern
ment.
The territory in dispute was not at that
time specified but it was naturally sup
posed from the terms of the proposition of
the British plenipotentiary in 1874 to lie
between the Essequlbo and Pomaron rivers.
In 1876 Venezuela again urged a settle
ment of the question, to which five years
later Lord Granville replied by a new propo-
sition, fixing the boundary at point on
the Atlantic coast 30 miles east of the right
bank of the Barima river, thus greatly en-
larging the English claim
In 1888 the British government pro-
posed joint settlement of boundaries and
during the negotiation of the treaty the
Venezuelan plenipotentiary obtained the
written promise of the English government
that all questions between their respective
countries should be settled by arbitration.
A change in the British ministery oe-
CURED before the treaty was signed, and
the successor of Lord Granville announced
that Great Britain would not arbitrate
question of limits, although she had re-
sorted to this process in her questions with
the United States in 1927 and 1871
In 1886 Lord Roseberry presented
new boundary proposition coupled with a
proviso for free navigation and commerce
on the Orinoco river, which Venezuela de-
clared to be an inadmissible proposition
and refused to accept.
Pending the negotiations in London the
authorities of British Guiana proceeded to
occupy portion of Venezuelan Guiana
The government of Venezuela promptly
protested against this occupation and de-
manded of Great Britain to withdraw her
pretentions, and the latter having failed to
comply with this demand, Venezuela dis
solved diplomatic relations with that gov
ernment. Such relations have not since
been resumed, although the United States
has several times exerted itself to bring
about settlement.
The apparent determination of Great
Britain Of holding to the extreme limit of
the boundary of the disputed territory, at
last caused the Venezuelan government to
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