The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-02-20
BRITISH WERE DECEIVED ~
FALSE STATEMENT.
UTTERED BY AN AMERICAN
Claim Secretary Of Legation Misrep-
resented conditions-Dispute
Of Bowen and Herbert,

London, Feb. ia blue book on
the Venezuelan dispute was issued
this evening. One of the dispatches
in the book is an official letter from
the former British minister at Cara.
cas-, w. ID. Haggard, to Foreign Min
lister L%ansdowne, dated Trinidad. De.
cember 80, concerning the alleged il
legal detention of the British schoon-
Ell Harry Troop by the Venezuelan
government in an %unhealthful place.
from May to November, 1902, where
by the crew were decimated by dysen-
terry. Mr.. Haggard says in his letter:
II regret to say that it would ap-
pear that I placed too much faith in
the complete accuracy of the secretary
of the United States legation, w. w.
Russell, as to improvement in the
condition of the Harry Troop, ETC.,
when he saw her. These statements
may possibly be accounted for by the
facts, which appear undoubted, that
Mr.. Bowen was most anxious, for rea-
sons best known to himself, to repre-
sent the conduct of the Venezuelan
authorities in the most favorable
light possible, and that he had inspir-
ed his subordinate in the same direc-
ton. To put it briefly. Mr.. Russell
did not dare to say a word outside of
the legation in regrad to President
Castro's mode of proceeding"
Another dispatch is Sir Michael
Herbert's report to Minister Lans-
downe on his disagreement with Min
lister Bowen, dated January 20. The
British ambassador says in this res
port:
"The Italian ambassador, the Ger
man charge d'affaires and | called to-
hight on Mr.. Bowen. I informed him
that we we're forced to reckon with
public opinion in England and it
might be necessary to fall back on
the international tribunal at The
Hague. We were unable to obtain sat
%isfactory answer from Mr.. Bowen,
who was very obdurate. He ultimate
ly made a statement in reply, in the
following terms:
"I object to paying first the claims
of the allies and the claims of the 9TH
err nations afterward, because:
Firstly, I think it in unjust. I'M
fair and illegal to tie the hands of
the said other nations for a period of
five or six years hat it would take
to pay the claims of the allied powers
"'Secondly, if l recognize that
brute force alone a be respected in
the collection of claims, l should en-
courage the said other nations to use
force also.
"'Thirdly, if the allied powers want
ed preferential treatment they should
have asked for it at the beginning"
Mr.. Bowen added, however. that he
was willing to grant a months prefer
ence. This is the only mention in the
blue book of the dispute between Sir
Michael Herbert and Mr.. Bowen.
Germans on Venezuela.
Berlin, Feb. 1.-THE newspapers
generally have little to say about the
Venezuelan settlement. Those which
government views affirm that
Germany comes out of the affair mod
erately wela, inasmuch as she OBJ
tains, at the end of the negotiations,
all she asked for at the beginning.
Papers which are independent of Of
fetal influence, especially the Pan
German opponents and certain papers
of reactionary tendencies, say that
the only power which has come out of
the affair with heightened prestiges
is the United States; that none of
the European powers have strength
ened their positions, and that two
great powers have been standing in
the eyes of the world for two months
a d%eferential attitude toward the
United States, practically asking per-
to coerce an impotent state.
Various newspapers allude to the
Monroe doctrine in careful language,
affirming that Europe can recognize
the doctrine as international law only
after a congress of the powers has
been held on the subject.
The scratch of a min NAV cause the