The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-16
THE ALLIES
FELL DOWN.
How Venezuelan Wiles Have Left
the SKINNED Milk for the T
Europeans.
Customs Paying Material to Be
Rushed In Between Now
and March /.
Special to The Journal

Washington, Feb. 16.-By not being
good men of business the diplomatic rep
resentatives Of Germany, Great Britain
and Italy lost a fine point in dealing with
Venezuela. Whether Minister Bowen I'M
derstood it or not it is a fact which has
just now become apparent that Vene-
zuela will get the cream Of the customs
duties at it's ports this year, while the
triple alliance will have to be content
with 80 per cent of the skinned milk.
The protocols on agreements between
the allied powers and Venezuela provide
for a division Of the customs revenues
at the two principal ports of Venezuela
after March 1, in such way as to
serve so per cent for the creditors and
70 per cent for the republic The con-
tinental diplomats overlooked the fact
that they have been starving Venezuela
for some time and that there is an enor-
nous collection of dutiable products now
! within easy distances which will be
rushed through the custom houses during
the next two weeks and which will not
| pay toll to the triple alliance or to any
| body else except to Venezuela.
Ever since the blockade began valuable
| cargoes have accumulated particularly at
Curaco, and these can be passed through
| the custom houses without difficulty and
| in an extremely short time. 1t has also
been learned that the agent of the Red
D Steamship company line, which car
ries the bulk of the business to Venezuela,
has been in Washington during the en-
tire time Of the negotiations and notified
| his company fully week ago that the
blockade would probably be raised about
| this time. ''t = " 80" '
Z In this way it has been possible to load
| a number Of big steamers with valuable
| cargoes for Venezuelan importers. Prac-
tically all of the belated goods are either
| here or in West Indian ports, and it can
| be taken for granted that president Cas-
| tro will see the Importance of getting
them all Q through the custom-house be-
fore March /. General Castro is pretty
well versed in dubious financial methods
and it would be quite like him to offer
Il special inducements in the way Of small
) rebates to every importer who gets I'M
der the line before the first day of March
According to recent estimates the tota
} customs revenue Of Venezuela is abou
million a month so that ordinarily i
would be an extremely easy matter to i'm
!. port enough to provide receipts of 1925, 00'
during the time which remains until thu
supervision Of the customs receipts b!
foreigners goes into effect.
! In view of the great congestion of i'm
: ports caused by the complete paralysis o
foreign commerce during the blockade, tn
imports for the remainder Of Februar,
are likely to be far in excess of the aver
age and the receipts may easily run up t.
several million dollars. This possibly eX
plains why Mr.. Bowen was so willing t
agree to the eXtortionate demands of Ger
: many.
Venezuela will make up in the next tw
, weeks considerably more than enough t
f pay the entire preferred demands of Ger
many, Great Britain and Italy.
AS natural consequence Of the enor
, nous rush the next two weeks the innpor
tations after March 1 may be expected
fall off SO that the percentage to be Sc
aside for the triple alliance will resu
, in a much smaller sum at first than tn
, bulldozing nations could possibly have i'm
, aSined
This is the one good thing Venezuela
makes out of the negotiations. and it ca
fairly be assumed that the people here j
5 the United States will not be disappointe
about it. Whether President Cast1
planned this little piece of sharp practic
to teach the European nations that the
i were not as wise as they thought the
were, remains to be seen. It is certain
} however, that Minister Bowen was M
aware of the advantage Venezuela wou
receive by deferring the pawnbrokir
operations Of the European alliance unit
after March I, because he has uniform
conducted the negotiations in a spirit
fairness.