The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-03
READY TO FURNISH THE MONEY.

Venezuela will have no difficulty In
raising the money necessary to pay
any debts The Hague Tribunal may
find to be due from her to the allies,
provided she is willing to furnish the
necessary security. A syndicate is be-
ing formed in New York, for that pur-
pose and Speyer Brothers, we'll known
banking firm of New York, are seeking
the privilege of financing the award
whatever it may be. There is therefore
likely to be considerable competition
for the privilege of helping Venezue-
la out of her financial troubles.
But there must be security, and good
security. Bankers and syndicates are
not going to take a great risk What
they want is control of the country's
custom houses. OF course, Venezuela
will balk at giving up control of her
revenues. but beggars cannot be
chosers. Some figures have been pub
lished showing that Venezuela can get
along on a great deal less than her,
revenues. The trouble is that her gov
eminent is not honestly and economi-
cally administered.
A syndicate or banking firm might
have some trouble in collecting the
revenues. A revolution might take
place, and the successful party might
repudiate a contract made for the pay
ment of the nations debts. In that
event, what course would a syndi-
cate or banking firm having control
of the revenues, do. Would it raise an
army and take possession of the gov
eminent as well as the revenues?
Perhaps it is the purpose of the syn
dictate or the banking firm that
proposes to take the contract for
financing the nations debts to get some
sort of guarantee from this country
to preserve the peace in Venezuela dur
ing the time the contract is in force.
If there is any such purpose there is
disappointment in store for the finan-
ciers who are anxious to make a
profit out of Venezuela's misfortunes.
There would be trouble for this coun-
try if 1t should establish such a pre-
cedent. There are other states to the
south of us which have debts, and there
is ground for thinking that European
powers mean to collect those debts
just as soon as the Venezuelan affair is
out of the way. Honduras, it is said
owes as much as 100000, 900 to citizens
of Germany and Great Britain. Rep
resentatives of these citizens are now
In Honduras seeking payment of their
bonds. The bonds were issued in pay
ment for railroad running from Puer-
to Cortes to a point in the in
terror. None of the principal nor the
interest has ever been paid
If Germany and Great Britain are
ready to go to war to collect debts due
their citizens from Venezuela it is but
reasonable to suppose they would be
willing to set their warships in motion
against Honduras for like purpose.
If Honduras were put up at auction she
wouldn't bring much, if any, more than
$100000,000. The outlook therefore for
collecting such a sum from her is not
encouraging. Doubtless the bondholders
would be willing to make a compromise
and accept few cents on the dollar.
Recently we called attention to the
fact that all of the Central and South
American countries have large debts,
particularly the Argentine Republic
and Brazil, and their creditors are cit
liens of Great Britain, Germany and
France. The bondholders are clamor-
ing for their money. They see no way
of getting it except through their re-
spective governments. Have these gov
ernments gone into the collecting BUSH
ness on large scale, and is the demand
on Venezuela only the beginning of it?