The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-02-07
ENGLAND AND AMERICA.
Real English Sentiment Toward This
Country.

Country.
Speech of the Hon. Arthur j. BaIfour,
First Lord of the Treasury.
(Fwm the London Times of Jan. 16.
turn from the continent of Africa to
the continent of America, and ask YOU
to turn your attention for a very lew
minutes to the EN- barrassments and
controversies which have recently arisen
in that continent N connection with
boundary dispute, which has now
dragged its slow length along, decade af-
ter decade, between US and the Republic
of Venezuela. In itself, as you well
know, this question would not have
seemed in any way matter Of first rate
Importance, had it not been for the views
expressed and for the action taken by this
government of the United States OF
America. You will ask, naturally enough
what interest, what direct interest, have
the United States of America in the dis
cussion upon this boundary question
which concerns not North America but
South America, and which is removed
from the United States of America by
hundreds of miles of land and water?
The answer to that question is that the
American government and sections of the
American people seem to entertain the
suspicion that in tho action we have
taken with regard to Venezuela we have
run counter to the doctrine long cele-
brated in the New World as the Monroe
doctrine.
What is the Monroe dootrine?? What
is the doctrine expressed by President
Monroe now some 20 years and more ago?
It was a doctrine with which we at the
time, 4&he British government of the day,
heartily conourred, and it was directed
against the action of certain European
Powers which desired to intervene In the
domestic affairs of the South American
States, and to impose upon them s form
Of government from the outside; and the
Monroe doctrine, as expressed by Presi-
delst Monroe, really in substance amounts
TO this--that America, North and South
Is no longer to be regarded as a field for
European colonization, and that Euro
pean nations are not to be regarded as
having title to interfere in the domes-
WcrM The British government, as have
told you, of President Monroes Gays not
only cencurred in that, but gave it their
actsFe support, and I have yet to learn
that upon the substance of this doctrine
the British government have ever, altered
haitsminds. do not believe that it you
weretto ransaok England from end to
end, that if you were to look into the
most pri vate memoranda of the Foreign
Office through the two generations which
have passed away since President Mon
roe's Message. if you were to look among
Ministers, among the ordinary public,
among even the crotcheteers or the luna
tics Daughter you would find one sim
gle individual who ever desired to see
what is called the forward policy''
adopted by Great Britain either in North
or in South America. { Hear. hear). We
are content, and have always been con-
tent, both in Moth America and III
South America, to do our best by the
colonies we possess. to do our duty both
to develop them, and, if need be to pro-
tect them. { Hear, hear). But we have
never desired, and we do not now desire,
to interfere with the domestic CON
Germs of any South American State, or to
acquire for ourselves any territory that
belongs to them. Indeed, believe that if
one of those revolutions which are said
to be not unknown in Venezuela
Claughter) were to end in a proposition
from the Venezuelans themselves thet we
should add Venezuela to the possession OF
the British Crown that we should take it
under our protection and INCORPORATE it
with our Empire, though the honor of
such q request would be highly appre-
ciated, l think the responsibility would
he declined by every British statesman to
whom it could possibly be made.
Well, then, if we are absolutely at one
both with President Monroe and with the
great body of opinion in the United
States of America upon this subject
you will ask me- what is the quarrel
about, and l do not know (laughter)
that I should be able TO give you very
clear or intelligible answer as to exact
ly what it was that was objected to in
our course by the government of the
United States. But, then, I will say
that our controversy with Venezuela is,
as l have told you, controversy of very
old standing. 1t has come before govern
ment after government drawn from both
political parties and extending over gen
GRAFTON after generation, and the docu-
ments connected with it are, therefore,
necessarily voluminous. We have present.
ed to the country in despatch which is
in the hands. or may be in the hands OF
all who desire it, the general heads of
our view of the case, but we are now-I
mean the Foreign Office-activeIy en-
gagged in the labor of compiling and of
bringing together every document of i'm
portance bearing upon the case, and as
soon as that can be done it shall be laid
before Parliament and before the coun-
try (Hear, hear). I understand from
the ordinary sources of informs alton that
the government Of the United States
have appointed a Commission to investi-
gate the same subject, and surely with
all this mass of material before the pub
lie Of both countries it will be hard in
deed if the common sense of the Anglo
Saxon race (Hear, hear) is not able to
settle any point in dispute without the
arbitrament Of war. (Cheers)
But I should not be consulting my own
feelings in this matter were to avoid
touching upon another aspect of this
controversy with America, which, con-