The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-07-21

] lnhablted The claim OF either tne
Dutch or of the English to hold the
mouth of the great Spanish river turns
out to be utterly untenable and Mr..
| Storrow says every English or Dutch
| historian who pretends to serious con-
sideration of the matter re-echoed the
judgment of Lord Stowell, which es-
capped the notice of Professor Pollock
| and Lord Salisbury.
After citing the treaty of Aranguez
to show that the Dutch made no claim
to the controlling shore of the Orinoco
Mr.. Storrow goes for the Schomborgk
| line and traces its history Inciden-
tally he finds that the British blue
| books leaves part of sentence out of
| Schomborgks memoir quoted which
shows that Schomborgk had no idea
his line would amount to anything un-
| til it's termini at least We're agreed upon
by the disputants. Venezuela never
agreed to any of it. After Barima had
been suggested as one end of the line
and Venezuela protested the assurance
was given by Lord Palmerstone that
it was only to be considered as "a
statement of the British claim" and
Lord Granville in 1881. Lord Aberdeen
! IooV
fered to agree to lines which they de-
clared would secure to Venezuela the
undisturbed possession of the mouth
of the Orinoco.
This was because Great Britain I'M
der those ministers and in fact under
all except Salisbury felt that neither
in law nor in good conscience could a
claim to Barima be insisted upon. Mr..
Storrow says:
Lord Salisbury Is the only minister
who insisted upon different view,
and his claims grew every time he re-
Cured to the subject"
The line marked by Schomborgk on
the maps published by himself and
by the government had been declared
at the outset to be the definition of
the British claim and merely a basis
for discussion. But now no decision is
to be permitted on that line, says Great
Britain, or territory within that line
and all that will be submitted to ar
bitration is territory formerly claimed
far outside of it,
But even the Schomborgk line has
been altered and expanded. In every
map and every description of it down
to 1886, which was twenty years after
his death, 1t was shown and described
as approximately a north and south
line, cutting across the Cuyuni and
across its southern BASIN This in
cludes the maps of 1910, 1S41, 1s47, pub
lished in the reports of his explora-
tions; five separate maps published di-
! rectly by the government or by the
| government authority-1S4O 1867, 1875.
| 1874 10,
onial list" 1S77-1SS6;-one Of which
maps, namely, that of 1875 in the gov
ernment publication of the geological
survey, was stated in the text to be
from tracing of Schomborgks final
map in the possession of the govern
ment. The great map of the colony,
about by feet map in SIZE prepared
by the government surveyors in 1875
and based on tracing of Schomborgks
map bearing Schomborgk's name and
still officially known as "Schomborgks
map and published by Stanford in
1875, by procurement of the colonial
government, showed the north and
south line and note on its face said:
The boundaries indicated in this
map and those laid down by the late
Sir Robert Schomborgk."
But in 1886 the colonial office "discov-
cred that all these maps were wrong:
that Shomborgk's line went around by
the great bend of Cuyuni. 1t compelled
stanford to conceal his maps and to
change his plate by erasing the boun-
Diary which went across the sea waters
of the Barima and across the Cuyuni
and by inserting another which went
around the great bend and the maps SO
changed in 1886 still bore the date 1876.
This the brief says is perilously near
the alteration of ancient landmarks
and spollation of records. 1t evidently
deceived Lord Salisbury who, on Feb
ruary 13, 1890, asserted it to be sthe line
surveyed by Sir r. Schomborgk in
1S41."
He did not survey this line in 1S41 or
any other year.
1t must also be pointed out, the brief
continues, that in 1850 the two nations
agreed that there should be no occupa-
ton of the disputed territory by either
and that in 1884 and subsequently Great
Britain invaded it with an armed force
and took possession up to the expanded
"Schomborgk line" On February 20,
1887, Venezuela severed diplomatic re-
rations with Great Britain. The lnves-
legations demonstrated that Schom-
borgk died under the impression that he
4 had drawn north and south line and
the publications Of his brother who
travelled with him contain the same
line. 1t is also shown that this line was
never altered until the discoveries of
gold outside the original line gave a
new speculative value to the region.
The line of all these authentic maps
strikes the Cuyuni, not the Acarabisi
river, where the Harrison surveying
party was, arrested last month, but at
the otomong river, which Is twenty
miles east of or below the Acarabisi.
Schomburgk's s map of 1874 expressed his
final conclusion and it is not permissi-
BILE to altar it after his death upon
supposed inference from remarks made
in any of his unpublished reports-if
there be any such remarks.
In conclusion Mr.. Storrow again
takes up the settled districts and
says:
From the best information to be got
from it's blue book and reports, its total
expenses for clearing streams, roads
and everything else would be less than
that. So, if every British subject on
resident were required to-day to quit
those regions with only what he would
| naturally carry with him the colony