The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-03
yENEzUELA's TROUBLE.

Tbo trouble that Venezuela has go
into with Great Britain and German
and which is bringing on JOINT naVa
demonstration by the latter powers
nav lead. as we hope it will, to modi
fcstion Of the Monroe doctrine. Ther
seems good reason to think that Nene
zuela. after Cleveland's war message
anneared. became Indifferent to her OBJ
legations to Europe. She got loaH'
and forgot to pay the interest; she Wis
tied indignities upon the SUBJECTS o.
Great britain and Germany and either
refused or evaded the pledge OF IN
dennnity. all the time believing ina
worst could not come to worst undel
tbe protecting shield of the Monroe
doctrine. Nor did Venezuela, mean
while treat the United States Win
much consideration, such a strain com
ing three or four years after the Cieve-
land incident that our envoy to Caracas
was nearly at the point of asking for
his passports.
1t soon became obvious TO the Wash
inston government that protection Civ
en- any Spanish-American state against
her creditors would be an injustice to
them and a peril to us, and that 1t
would simply make the beneficiary a
more dishonest dealer than before.
hn
Corinto, in Nicaragua, and held the Gus
tom house until a long overdue dept
was paid. This was a technical infrac-
ton of the old Monroe doctrine, but
the United States, seeing the essential
propriety of the British recourse, did
not complain. Nor did it when the Ger
mans enforced a collection from Hayu.
These instances ought not to have been
lost on Venezuela, but they were; and
now she finds herself face to face with
a crisis, in which, but for her futile
reliance on the extreme Monroe doc
trine. she might never have involved
herself.
1t would be a wholesome thing for
the United States to cut South America
loose from the Monroe doctrine alto
gether and take a protective stand at
a line drawn along the southern
border of Central America, including
within the same sphere of influence the
West Indian islands. This would con-
fine the Monroe idea to one continent,
where it belongs. assuming it to have
any excuse for existing at all. South
of the line danger always lies. For in
stance, under present interpretations
of the Monroe doctrine, if England and
Germany should seize Venezuelan ports
temporarily, this country would not in
tervene; but if either power should
hang on, as the British do in Egypt,
and as Germany would be tempted to
be incumbent on the United States
either to threaten war or back down in
front of foreign broadsides. The abb
surdity of going to war on behalf of a
delinquent state like Venezuela is IN
creased by the fact that she has so
much more liking for Europe than for
us that she shapes her commercial poll
icies, invariably, in way to antago-
nize ours. So do all the other South
American countries. 1t may be added
that the net result of our quasi-pro-
lection of South America has been to
keep nations out that would develop
its resources and make it a treasure
house for the world; and that abandon
ment would mean the energizing of the
whole continent at European hands and
our own, in the results of partition
like that of Africa.
l.