Times-promoter., 1902-12-12
PATOS ISLAND OWNERSHIP.
Dispute q Century Old Which May be Made
the Cause of Strife With
Venezuela

washington, Dec. Sin Venezuela's
yellow book for 1901, a copy of
which has been received in Washing
ton recently from the foreign Office
at Caracas, are the exchanges be-
tween the London and Caracas gov
ernments last year in regard to the
ownership of Patos island, which has
been in dispute between the two
countries for many years. Signiti-
canoe attaches to this correspondence
in view Of the approaching crisis be-
tween Venezuela and Great Britain, as
it is not improbable that in the set
tlement of the claims of British and
German citizens against Venezuela
the Patos dispute will again be in
volved. Reopening the /Patos ques-
ton was caused by the action of the
Venezuelan gunboat Augusta, in jan
uary, 1901, in capturing certain Brit
ish subjects on the island. When the
Caracas authorities were called to ac-
count by the London foreign Office
the former replied by renewing their
long-standing claim to Patos. and a
diplomatic controversy extending
throughout the year was the result.
Venezuela bases her claims to the
island on its proximity to the coast
Of Guiaria, from which it is distant
only three miles, claiming that it is
tenet of international law that a
country commands water within a
marine league of its coast; that the
international law institute has de-
fined the territorial sea as six miles,
whereas the island of Patos is more
than ten miles from Trinidad, the
nearest British possession; further,
that the treaty of March, 1S45, Tex
plicitly confirms the title of Venezuela
over all the islands near her coast,
which were under the dominion of
Spain in the initiative period of Nene-
zuelan independence" In support of
this contention, the Venezuelan au-
thorities produce a letter from the
royal Spanish minister for state in
1873, in which he denies that royal
sanction never was given to the con-
cession alleged to have been made to
the ayuntamiento of Trinidad by the
governor of Patos, Huevos and Monos.
Great Britain, through her charge
d'affaires at Caracas, and later
through her minister, advanced the
contention that when she conquered
the island of Trinidad, in 1897, soVer-
eighty over Patos also was obtained
and so recognized by the Madrid gov
ernmc1t; that Patos has remained in
the peaceful possession of Great Brit
ain for more than q century, during
70 years Of which time Venezuela ad-
vanced no counter claim, and that the
official map of Codazzi colors the ISL
and of Patos the same as Trinidad, in
dicating that both belong to the same
country.
To this last contention Venezuela
replied by stating that the map OF
Codazzi was so old as to make it inn
possible to distinguish the various
colors, and produced other maps by
the same author, which places Patos
as belonging to Venezuela.
Being unable to agree upon even
the minor points of the controversy,
the British minister near the close OF
last year informed the Venezuelan
foreign Office that he would make no
further representations in the mat
ter. as there was nothing to be gained
in continuing the correspondence.
It is understood that President Cas-
tro will ask that the question be set
tied by arbitration, a proposition to
which the British government will
hardly accede, in view of its conten-
ton that the ownership of Patos is
so clearly British as not to furnish
c,1i+o b1a cubiect for arbitration,