The times., 1899-10-05

of possession handed down in documentary
and photographic form from generation to
generation. This has been the work of the
tribunal. presided over by Prof Martens,
with Chief Justice Fuller and Mr.. Justice
Brewer, Of the United States Suprsme
Court, and Lord Chief Justice Russell and
Mr.. Justice Collins. Of England, as asso-
ciates. In addition to deciding upon the
facts Of history and the justice of claims
dependent upon them, the court, acting un-
der the arbitration treaty between the par
ties 10 the controversy. was obliged to con-
slider fifty years peaceable possession OF
any given area by either as good against
the other. The effect of that limitation of
the question upon the result at Paris we
shall not attempt to discuss, as there ap-
pears TO be ample extraneous reason for
approving the award.
A few references to accepted authority
and a little study of the outline map which
viii be found in another column will. we
think, make these reasons plain. The
date of the earliest known Dutch voyage
to the coast of Guiana was 1897. In the
previous year the Spaniards had assembled
the orinoco and established a post at its
confluence with the Caruni River. When
the HoIlanders reached the neighborhood
there was also a Spanish fort on the Esse-
quibo River at the point where it receives
the continent waters of the Caruni and the
Mazuruni The first was west CT the ex-
treme boundary claim of Great Britain,
while the second was seventy-five miles
east Of the extreme limit formerly insist
ed upon by Venezuela, being modified later
In 1926 the Spaniards were still at Santa
Thome de la Guayana, on the Orinoco, but
their fort on the Essequibo had become
Dutch for all time. Thenceforward, the
Spanish colonists were confined 10 the
western or Orinoco side of the terri
tory. while their competitors increas-
ed and multiplied toward them from
their base on the Essequibo. In
164s, and again in 1874, the conditions
of 1926 were unchanged In 1903, the
Dutch had pushed their outposts to
point near the headwaters of the Curumo
River well to the west of the British line
as now established at Paris. Between that
year and 1924 they had abandoned it.
From thence on TO 1914 the areas of
occupation of the two colonies remained
1897 and 1925, the Spanish fort disappeared
from the Essequibo. to the date Of the
cession of the Dutch provinces to Great
Britain, there is no reliable historical or
photographic evidence of any Spanish set
Element east Of the boundary line de-
cided upon by the arbitral court, and that
line runs religiously to the west from
Mount Rorama on the south to the eastern
end Of the Imataca Mountains, the extreme
eastern limit of Spanish settlement any
where demonstrable.
Since the Spaniards undoubtedly con-
trolled the mouth of the Orinoco, as the
Dutch did that of the Essequibo, although
the latter were often in close proximity to
the first named, the decision to give the
Orinoco to Venezuela, allowing Great Brit
ain to approach it as nearly as Playa
and in accordance with historical evidence.
AS TO the new line considered in its en-
tirety. it more nearly approximates the
Granville line claimed by England in 1881,
than the Schomburgk, which is enormously
referred to by some American journals as
the basis of the award. 1t leaves to Vene-
zuela considerable area within the ex-
treme British claim, to the west Of the
Cuyuni River, with obvious propriety: but
it also defeats the claim of the Republic
TO nearly one-haIf OF the territory between
the Essequibo and the Cuyuni.
To sum up: Venezuela is allowed all the
territory in dispute which appears to have
been in the possession of Spain in 1910.
and Great Britain is accorded exactly what
is proven to have been in the possession
of Holland prior TO and in the year 1914.
The historical evidences seem incontro-
Yertible. and the award of the tribunal
above reasonable criticism.