The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1896-01-03

sC"iu6 CHClc.
And the prosperous New Yorker
reads II entire, while the. metropoli.
tan sheets lay beside him untouched.
THE CAUSE OF THE DISPUTE.
New York JournalJ "
The issue between the United
States and Great BEivtsiS Bv @tl., concerning
the boundary r. o0'~ee" Venezuela
and BritL,r6uiana arises fns.-.etly
At n,~ss6t over the demand by tHd
Caoish government for an indemnity
Of $4,000 pounds from Venezuela for
the arrest by her authorities Of In
glishmen on English Territory" The
territory on which the arrest was
made is the disputed region on the
border of British Guiana, which Is
claimed by that country and Vene-
zuela, the merits OF which claim the
United States has requested Great
Britain to submit to arbitration,
which request Great Britain has re-
fused.
1t is the fact of Great Britain's de-
mand on Venezuela fora money in-
demnity that makes the crisis acute
because the only logical course the
English government can follow, now
that Venezuela has refused to pay,
Is to attempt to take tribute by force;
but the boundary dispute has long
been at issue.
Its keynote is found in commune
cation which Diego B. Urbanega,
Venezuelan minister OF foreign affairs,
addressed on Jan. 29, 1887, to F. R. St.
John, British minister to Venezuela,
giving history Of the controversy
and concluding:
"There is not the slightest doubt
that an extensive portion of Vene-
zuelan territory and the great artery
on the north Of the South American
continent, the Orinoco, are de facto
under the dominion of Great Britain,
under the fragile pretext that there
is a dispute about limits between the
Republic and her majeSty's govern
ment. The logical conclusion from
the existence OF . controversy about
the proprietoship Of lands and waters
would be, at most, the convenience Of
neutralizing, by common consent, the
places in litigation pending the deci-
sion of same. But for one OF the con-
tending parties to decide upon the
appropriation of the object under con-
troversy by himself and in contempt
Of the rights OF the other, by the
light Of all Jurisprudence an unjustiti-
able violation Of the most sacred
right OF a nation it is deadly wound
inflicted upon the sovereignty of the
republic. Great Britain has reproved
In a similar case the self-same action
which she to-day takes with F5na-
zuela.
Venezuela has frequently pop se5
that the question be submitted / t1o
decision OF an arbitrator on rig.
and her majesty's government has re-
fused, alleging that this method can
not be applied to a controversy on
limits. 1t has persisted in this refu-
sal, although vemnded that by con-
tentions of 1927 and 1871 England her
self referred to an arbitrator a dis
pute on limits between herself and the
United States, one about her possess
sions 10 North America and the other
in reference to the Canal Haro, with
the circumstance that, in the latter
case, the proposal came from herself
as many as six times"
The "Schomburgk line" was drawn
by Sir Robert Schomburgk in 1910, his
fsurvey simply eYtsaassSiiAfS'Asssae 9sjisss.
claim westward from the Essequibo
river (which the Venezuelans assert
to be the boundary established by
Spain and Holland under the treaty
OF Wcstphalia) to the Orinoco delta
and southwark to the Amacura and
the waters Of the Cuyuni. Venenzuela
has, however always claimed the
EsseQuibo river as the boundary. In
l843 Lord Aberdeen openly disavowed
the "Schomburgk line," and later de-
manded still more territory, the res
suit being that In 1850 England and
Venezuela made diplomatic agree
ment not to occupy any part Of the
territory in dispute that was then oc.
cupied.
A quarter Of century later Eng
land occupied the whole territory
included BY the "Schomburgk line,''
with 10000 square miles beyond It,
fortifying the main entrance to the
Orinoco and placing forts and bound.
arv pOsta. This hiuh.handfd oukrao oe