Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-02-06


Empire.
On the other hand, | see clearly that
the assertion of our full abstract rights
as against Venezuela might possibly,
or even probably, involve us in war
with America-that is, in a conflict in
which we have nothing to gain and
everything to lose. | should therefore
be inconsistent with my own principles
if did not apply them to the case of
Venezula. The self-same grounds which
led me years ago to deprecate the ces-
sion of the Transvaal lead me to-day to
deprecate the assertion of our claim to
the Schomburgk line. In the former
case the game was worth the candle,
that candle being the risk of further
war with the Beers. In the latter the
game is not worth the candle, the
candle being the risk of war with the
United States. Between our two
countries a contest is, and must be, an
unequal one. The chances of war may
be, andsI believe are, in favor of Great
Britain. 1t is the stakes that are so
fearfully unequal. Let any level headed
man think out for himself what
America and England stand respect
lively to lose, supposing the fortunes of
war go against them, and he will, l
am sure, agree with me, that the con
test is one on which this country would
be mad to engage, unless war could
only be avoided by the sacrifice of our
honor and our credit.
1t is this latter consideration viii ch
weighs with me most strongly as an
argument against the acceptance of ar
btration. If an object lesson were re-
quired as to the faulty of purchasing
Inn, s,oa6i iafo itxy hx,k tho
loss of prestige, it would be furnished
by the recent events in South Africa.
All the complications we have had Of
late years to deal with in South Africa,
complications which are very far from
being ended, may be traced directly to
our conclusions of peace with the Beers
on the morrow of our disastrous and
ignominious defeat If therefore held
the view that our acceptance of arbi-
tration would be attributed to the fear
of war with the United States, l
should be the last to counsel any modi-
fication of the policy our Government
has hitherto pursued. But the at
tempted interference of the German
Emperor in the relations between Eng
land and the Transvaal has had this
good result, that it has afforded England
an opportunity of showing the world
that if needs be she is prepared to fight.
After the response made by the govern
ment and the people of Great Britain
to the menace of German Intervention
in the Transvaal, no sane person will
credit the assertion that we decline to
uphold our just rights in Venezuela
through any unworthy dread OF the
possible risk of thereby incurring the
hostility of the United States
On general grounds, ] can see no
cause to imagine that the acceptance
of arbitration, even if the Schomburgk
line was left an open question, would
| affect our prestige as nation. l am
| told that we cannot afford to desert
settlers who have made their homes in
| the disputed territory under the be-
lief that in so settling they were as
sured of the protection of the British
Empire. | agree fully with this prop
osition as above stated, but | am by no
means certain that the statement is
correct. Before / can accept the con-
clusion should like to know good
deal more about the numbers and the
nationality of these settlers, the date
of their occupancy, the nature of their
| titles, and the reasons which have in
| duced them to locate themselves in one
of the most unhealthy, out-of the way,
| and inaccessible of our colonial possess
sions We are in duty bound to protect
| our fellow countrymen, but if adequate
compensation were provided no indi
vidual settler would have Just cause of
complaint, and it is difficult, to my
mind, to believe that there are any
considerable number of English citi-
zens who, of their own free will and
choice, have made their homes in the
swamps of the territory in dispute.
Again no dscredit attaches to the
| admission that the claims on which
our possession of the disputed territory
| is based are not as strong as we origl
nally supposed. 1t is, OF course, posi-
| BILE that tine record of our case, which
| the government has undertaken to
| produce, may prove SO conclusive as
| TO admit of no contention. But it
seems ia me that such contingency is
most improbable. After all, there is no
getting over the facts that the frontier
controversy between Great Britain and
| Venezuela has been going on for the
better part of the present century; that
the dispute relates to tho interlands
of remote haf-savage region, whose
| precise limits were utterly unknown
to either the Dutch or the Spaniards,
from whom British Guiana and Ven
ezuela respectively claim their owner
ship; that at intervals of many years
successive British governments have
proposed seven entirely different front
| Ter lines one after the other, and that
the whole history of the negotiations
is too confused to admit of anything
| like absolute incontrovertible demon
stration. These facts are patent to
| everyone. | am, moreover, informed
by Sir j. Tollemache Sinclair, who has
devoted great attention to the subject,
| that there are English maps in the
| British Museum which, as they were
published by Mr.. Wilde, the we'll
| known geographcr, were probably cor
rected by the British officials in the
colony, and that these maps, the first
of which was published as long ago as
| 1928, describe the Marico river as our
frontier. | learn, too, from the same
authority, that as late as 1887, the
then governor of British Guiana, eau
toned all applicants for licenses in the
mining districts parts of which lie on
the British side Of the Schomburgk
| line, that these licenses, by order of the
home government, were issued subject
| to the possibility that in the event of
a settlement the land might become
part Of Venezuelan territory, in which
case no claim for compensation could
be recognized" l have not had the
opportunity to verify these statements
for myself. But if correct they seem
to me to prove conclusively that in
common Justice we cannot claim to de-
eide the matter in dispute in our own
favor, and that even if we could do so