Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-14
VENEZUELAN COMMISSION Have Decided That the Main
 Points at Issue HINGE ON ROYAL ARCHIVES An Effort Will Be Made to See or Get Copies
 of Them.
 VENEZUELAN DOCUMENTS ARE COMING Important Documents Will Be Forthcom- ing From Paris, Rome and Madrid.
 MT. Coudert and President Gill
 man Hard at Work
HINGE ON ROYAL ARCHIVES
VENEZUELAN DOCUMENTS ARE COMING

Washington. March 13-The Venezue- Ian commission at it's regular meeting to- day, with all the members present, vir- tually 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 other countries, and that while such documents would probably be quoted by each of the disputants in support of the contradictory claims presented the duty would devolve upon the commission not only to verify, by actual examination, all such citations, but if practicable to de- velop contemporary documents which might throw strong side lights upon the evidence submitted. While definite action was postponed until the full British and Venezuelan cases shall have been formal ly brought under consideration, there re- mains no doubt that some of the com missionerS or at all events the secretary of the commission, MT. Mallet Provost, and agents under his direction will soon be sent to Madrid and The Hague. It is stated that this determination Is not due to the alleged discovery of interpretations in decrees and treaties already in the commission's possession, but from the conviction that the final decision of the COulUllSSlOn ought not to De open to any attack as to the inconclusiveneSS of the pivotal evidence upon which decision will in all probability be found to depend. In the preliminary investigations of the commission they have been confronted with numerous diametrically conflicting maps and translations. While geographi- cal discrepancies are within the power or the commission to harmonize through the enormous mass of corroborative charts it commands, the comparative in decipherability and partial illegibility of royal decrees are thought to be matters which recessitate personal and expert examinations. The commission expects to be in possession of the British blue book as well as the greater part of Vene- zuela's case early next week, in view of the anticipation Mr. Coudert and Presi- dent Gilman, who have hitherto spent little time in Washington, will T. main here for the present for daily meetings, at which the weighing and comparison of evidence will be prosecuted continuously, No one of the commissioners has yet had an opportunity to carefully examine the British case as the only available copy that has reached them was one of the advance edition sent by Ambassador Bayard to the state department, which may contain typographical or other er- TOTS incident to nasty preparation. The regular copies for the commission will arrive here in all probability tomorrow evening or Monday next. While access to a state department copy has been al- lowed there has been no opportunity 10 examine 1t fully.
 The Venezuelan minister has been mo- tifed by cable from his government that the first installment of official evidence for the consideration of the high com mission left La Gauyara on the steamer Philadelphia the 10th instant, and IS due to arrive in New York next Tuesday. The documents 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 inadmissibility of Dutch claims to any territory west of the Essequibo. A large number of authenticated official maps covering the same period are included, none of which have heretofore been pro- duced, as no occasion for their presen- tation has ever occurred.
 Minister Andrade has alo been inform ed that the records of the Venezuelan legations at Rome, Madrid. London and Paris contain many docments bearing on the controversy, and these Will all De placed at the commissions disposal in short time, those from Paris, Rome ana Madrid in a few weeks.
 The agents of Venezuela have present. ed to the Venezuelen commission, among other documents, the official report of the ministry of the interior at Caracas to the ministry of foreign relations, dated May 23. 1S9O consisting of forty printed pages covering the radical advances of the British colOnian officers into the disputed territory following the rich discoveries of gold from 1885 to 1890, as investigated by national commission appointed by Venezuela to make a scientific exploring expedition into Guianian territory. The of h ic nnt mi new for the first time disclosed and shows, according to the testimony of Brit ish magistrates and others in the tefrto- ry, that as late as 1883 no British settle ment existed even as far west as the Pumaron river. As late as 1888 the settle ments are referred to by the English as the recently acquired district" and the colonial government is shown to be ex- erting it's authority in every way to rush emigrants into the interior, its success in some degree being shown by these figures of gold exports: 1885, 939 ounces; 1SS6 651S ounces; 1887, 11,906 ounces; 1888, 14,510 ounces, and for the first six months of 1889. 14,624 ounces. These documents, and especially those relating to Venezue- las formal protest against the usurpa- tlon, seem to place Viscount German ston, governor of British Guiana, in the light of suppressing the facts, although it is shown that he was in constant commit nicatgon. with Lord Salisbury. Testi- mony is adduced to demonstrate that the British authorities were most generous to the Indians, thereby securing access to the gold districts in the interior de- serted by Venezuelans, who were attract ed by blandishments to the coast settle ments.
 The publica tion has been submitted without argument, Venezuela relying all together upon the simple statements of fact.
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