The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-11-11
PAUNCEFOTE.
Washington, July ID, 1896.
"DcDartment of State

Washington, July 10, 1896.
department of State,
Your ENcellcncy: | have the honor to
acknowledge The receipt from you of Il
copy of Lord Salisbury's dispatch to YOU
of the 3D. inst. Its object is to explain
that his lordship,in his previous dispatch
of May %, did not intend that the boun-
Diary line fixed by the proposed arbtral
tribunal should include as British Guiana
any territory bona fde occupied by II
British subject january l, 1887. But, as
such territory must fall upon one side or
the other OF any complete boundary line
and was certainly not i'll any event to he
assigned to Venezuela, all the present ex-
PLANTATION would seem to show is that
Lord Salisbury's proposals of May -
contemplated not IL complete boundary
line but part or parts of such line
namely, such part or parts as might
divide uninhabited or unsettled terri
tory. Such conclusion requires IL some
what heroic construction of IL paper which
in terms proposes the following basis of
settlement of the Venezuelan boundary
dispute by which the two governments
are to endeavor TO agree to IL boundary
line upon the basis of II certain report
and by which, in absence of such an
agreement, an arbitral tribunal is to fix
the boundary line upon the basis of such
report. Nothing in this language init
mates that anything less than Il complete
boundary line is to be the outcome of the
plan suggested.
The discussion is, however, hardly
worth pursuing. If Lord Salisbury did
not make his meaning clear in the dis.
patch OF May %, he certainly is entitled
to make it clear now. There is another
part of the dispatch which seems to me
of more Importance and upon which |
wish to base an inquiry. The claim of
Venezuela, it is said, is so far-reaching
that it brings into question: interests and
rights which cannot properly be disposed
of by an unrestricted arbitration. 1t cX-
tends as far "a the lIsseuuibi; it covers
two thirds of the colony of British
Guiana; it impeachcs titles which have
been unquestioned for. many genera
tions. That Venezuela claims territory
extending To the Esscquibo, or covering
two-thrds of the colony of British
Guiana, cannot be regarded as being of
itself an insuparablc -obstacle to unre-
stricted arbitration But the objection
that the Venezuelan claim 'impeachcs
titles which have been unquestioncd for
many generations is undoubtedly OF the
most weighty character The inquiry
desire to put, therefore, is this: Can it be
e'roA'iitSN oiittt iiCl NltllcSlN = government
would submit to unrestricted arbitration
the whole of the territory in dispute,
provided it be a rule of the arbitration,
embodied i'll the arbitral agreement, that
territory which has been in the exclusive,
notorious and actual use and occupation
of either party for even two generations,
or say for sixty years, shall be held by The
arbitrators TO he the territory of such
party? In other words, will Her Majesty's
government assent to unrestricted arbi-
tration of MI the territory in controversy
with the period for the acquisition of
title by prescription fixed by agreement
IF the parties i'll advance ut sixty years?
- enclose copy of the dispatch for
Lord Salisbury's use. l should be glad
to have its substance transmitted by
cable, that it may be published with the
other correspondence on the 18th instant
"RICHARD OLNEY.'