The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-01-07
nsRE's THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
A LUCID EXPLANATION OF THE
VENEZUELA QUESTION

Senator Lodge Makes q Strong His.
tOricnI Argument in Defence OF
Our Position.
Hon. Horny Cabot Lodge, (Rep.)
Senator from Massachusetts, ad-
dressed the Senate on the subject OF
the Monroe doctrine. He said it was
not his intention to speak until the
joint resolution introduced by him
giving t. the declaration made by Mr..
Monroe in his message OF December,
1923, the formal sanction of Congress
had received the consideration of the
Committee on Foreign Relations.
But since then the President had sent
in his message on the Venezuelan
difficulty and Congress without u dis
senting voice had authorized the COM
mission which the President request
ed. This action had led to much wild
talk and cries more vocal than numer-
Gus from those who believe we should
never do anything to clash with Eng
lands interests. This outcry coupled
with London's attempt to frighten
Congress by producing stock panic
had tended to confuse the issue. He,
therefore, thought a little cool explana-
zion would not be out OF place.
Two cardinal principles, he said, had
slways governed the United States in
their relations with foreign nations.
nhe first was Washington's neutrality
doctrine as laid down in the farewell
address. The second was the Monroe
doctrine, the history of which he traced
in detail. The only attcmpt hereto
fore made by outside powers to break
through that doctrine was the joint IN
tervention of England. France and
Spain in Mexico in 1861. A second
case has now arisen, and the main
tcnsnce of the Monroe doctrine is again
threatened as it was by the French in
1862. This second attack upon the
principles of the Monroe doctrine
comes from Great Britain and is MADE
under cover of u boundary dispute
with Venezuela. In order to show the
Importance of this controversy which
had now reached a crisis affecting most
gravely the honor, the interests, the
rigb and the well-settled policy of
the United States, he sketched "brihy,"
as he said, but with elaborate details,
the history OF the dispute between
Great B 'itaiu and Venezuela and of
the negotiations between the two coun-
III les.
He continued as follows: cit will
be observed from this brief outline of
the dispute, that no new rights have
come to England or to Venezuela since
1914, i. e.. since the declaration of
President Monroe. They have the
rights of Spain and Holland, respec-
lively, nothing more, and nothing less,
and are entitled to exactly what those
inherited rights give them. In 1886 a
British minister acknowledged that
Point Barima belonged to Venezuela
| and asked the Venezuela government
to erect a light house there. In 1910,
British court in Demara declared
| the territory of the Morocco, far to the
| east of the Orinoco. to be Venezuelan
territory. In lS4l an English engineer
laid out perfectly arbitrary line
running from the mouth of the Orinoco
in southerly direction until it
reached the southern boundary of
British Guiana. Lord Aberdeen dis
avowed this line and proposed another
starting at the River Moroco and
81" further into the interior Lord
Hsnd "n".her r'""hing