The record-union., 1896-03-05
It is Favorable to the Claims Made by
Great Britain.
Free-Silver Democrats Have Hopes of
Controlling the National Demo-
cratic Convention at Chicago-Thfnk
of Unlimited Coinage at Ratio of
Sixteen to One.

1
| two columns of matter which it claims
| is a summary of the report made by Sir
| Frederick Pollock for submission to
Parliament
The Gazette" says that beside hav-
| ing at his disposal documents in the
possession of the British Colonial and
Foreign Offices. Sir Frederick Pollock
has drawn freely from information
made accessible to the British Govern
ment by the Keepers of the Archives of
| Spain and Holland
The material supplied by Holland
covers the period from the latter part
o. the sixteenth century to the second
decade of the nineteenth century, and
the Spanish documents cover the period
since the first ascent of the Amazon by
Orellana in 1T64, and from the first as
cent of the Orinoco by Juan Martinez
until Venezuela, in 1880, assumed inde-
pendence.
The evidence includes the particulars
and circumstances in which the Eng
lish took possession Of the Dutch West
India colonies in 1871, 1896 and 1903,
and the treaties under which these
tTansferences were ratified. The evil
dence also includes the story of corre
spondence and negotiation with the va
rious Governments by Venezuela down
70 the present time.
The information supplied by the Co
lonial Office comprises that collected by
the successive Governors of the Terri
tory since the administration of Colonel
Nicholson, in 1903, as regards the ex-
tent and character of the Dutch occu-
patton and exploration of the interior,
and also the details of the Venezuelan
incursions into British territory be-
tween the Orinoco and the Guyani, the
attempt cf American concessionaires to
establish themselves in British Guiana,
the steps taken to maintain British
ownership and the work done by Great
Britain TO ascertain the natural and
geographical boundary, without preju-
dice to strict. territorial rights beyond
such boundary.
These documents, with important
maps bearing thereon, show a British
case of overwhelming strength against
Venezuela's pretensions of ownership to
the west bank of the Essiquibo. The re-
port shows that the Dutch had from the
earliest times possession of the coast of
Guiana as far north as the mouth of the
Orinoco, such possession implying the
right of ownership OF the Hinterland,
right exercised by the Dutch. One Of
the early Dutch maps, printed in Am
sterdam in 1874, shows the line of par
tition according to the bulletin issued
by Pope Alexander VI, alloting the
whole of South America west of the
Amazon to Spain, and the whole of the
territory on the east Of the Amazon to
Portugal.
To the west of this is a large section
extending from the Amazon to the
mouth of the Orinoco marked 'Guyani.
This is divided in two, the Dutch part
extending from Barima to the river
Mariwini, and the French part from the
Mariwini to Cape Nord, on the Delta of
the Amazon.
The Spanish settlement of St. Thome,
on the Orinoeo, appears on this map,
but the Dutch line from Barima is
identical with the line representing the
extreme British claim.
Sir Frederick Pollock proves that the
Spaniards at no time established them
selves in Guiana proper until they over
ran part of the British territory to the
Cuyuni in and since 1858. They got no
further than the Orinoco. The fact
that ST. Thome is marked on the French
map at the extreme limit of their sta
tions is borne out by the Dutch map
which in 1898 was prepared for the
committee of colonies of the Bavarian
Republic by Major Won Luchencoeder
This map was prepared to assist the
statesmen who were negotiating the
cession of the Dutch colonies in South
America to the British.
Sir Frederick gives details showing
that it was upon the basis of this and
similar maps that the cession was eff
fected.
Correspondence taken from the arch
ives shows that when the Spanish
showed themselves in the Cuyini Valley
the Dutch Government vigorously pro-
tested to Spain against the encroach-
ments of her subjects upon Dutch terri
tory. The archives show that Spain
did not answer the protests of the Dutch
Government. Certainly Spain did not
assert her ownership of the region in
question. The States General of Hol-
land in 1859 and in 1860 set forth the
Dutch territorial rights and remanded
reparation for Spanish violation there
of
The correspondence shows that the
Dutch asserted ownership of the en-
tire water shed of the Essiquibo and
laid great stress upon their rights to
the Cuyini upon the upper reaches of
which stream they had established gold
diggings, and had been on terms of in
tercourse with the Indian tribes there
for 100 years in making researches.
The evidence which Spain placed at
the disposal of the Foreign Office shows
that Spain did not rebuilt the claim
made by the Dutch to the territory
Throughout the basin of Cuyini. The
Dutch archives are so we'll kept that
Sir Frederick Pollock was able to make
an irrefragable case for the British
ownership of the Cuyini basin as hav-
ing been inherited from the Dutch.
though no absolute evidence is deduct
ible to show how far the Dutch held the
country between the natural geograph-
ical delimitatfon known as the Schon1-
bergk line and the bank of the Orinoco
The report, after exhausting the evi-
dence prior to English acquisition of
the country, deals with the more recent
diplomatic aspects of the case, which
are not summarized.
PITIABLY WEAK CASE.
WASHINGTON, March 4-The
United Press cablegram giving a sum-
mary of the brief in the boundary dis
pute prepared by Sir Frederick Pollock