The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-24
GERMANY,S POSITION.
Defended by Foreign Minister in the
Reichstag.

Berlin, Jan 29.-In the Reichstag to-
day Foreign Secretary Won Richthofen
expressed the hope that the Venezuelan
difficulties would soon be settled. He
said: ''The negotiations at Washington,
1t is hoped, will show an early result,
rendering it possible to raise the block
however, respect for it must be enforc-
ed. The action against Maracaibo was
undertaken for this purpose"
'It has been said" continued the for
eign secretary, that we went into this
affair 'dashingly, with drums and trum-
pets 'Dashingly,' I admit, from the
moment when We appealed to arms.
But with drums and trumpets' I can
by no means admit. On the contrary,
we went to the extreme limit of pa
tience' and long suffering. The Vene-
zuelan government not only refused to
settle the debts contracted with Ger
man citizens, as is generally admitted,
but at the same time committed brutal
acts of violence against Germans and
German property. We made complaint
of these matters through diplomatic
channels, but did not succeed in making
progress upon this basis. The Vene-
zuelan government declared that it
must exclude all these cases from dip
1omatic treatment. In one memoran-
dunn, communicated by us through a
nate, it characterized our intended
course in the affair as insulting, mad
missible, outrageous and preposterous.
We made proposals to settle the con-
troversy by arbitration as early as July,
1901, at time when, by way of excep-
tion, no civil war prevailed in Vene-
zueia, and when the president was fully
able to satisfy our claims. In a note
of our charge d'affaires July 16, 1901,
the following language was used:
1.-The proposition which ] have the
honor of submitting verbally to your
excellency is the following:
The Venezuelan government on one
part and the imperial minister resident
ON the other part are each to select one
representative who shall Jointly exam
inc the claims of German citizens grow
ing out of the civil wars. In every
case wher eboth representatives agree
on the payment of an indemnity it
must be Immediately paid. In cases
where they fail to reach an agreement
the matter shall become the subject of
special conferences between the Vene-
zulan government and the German min
lister resident Should these conferences
also reach no result then some outside
authority like The Hague International
court of arbitration, must be selected to
settle the disputed cases..
The idea of submitting the matter to
The Hague corut therefore dates from
July. 1901. President Castro did not
even deign to answer this proposal.
"The assertion was made in the
course of the debate that the navy had
acted contrary to International law in
seizing merchantmen. With the begin
ming Of the blockade state of war
was created between us and Vene-
zuela, and the navy had the full right
and, from its standpoint, also the OBJ
legation to capture Venezuelan mer-
chantmen. The English and Italians
did the same.
"The present diplomatic situation is
es follows:
"A plenipotentiary selected by Vene-
Zuela, Mr.. Bowen, the United States
minister to the republic Of Venezuela.
arrived three day ago at Washington
from Caracas. He has had conferences
with the representatives of Germany.
England and Italy. We can only hope
that these negotiations will soon reach