The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-07
A NEW CRISIS IN VENEZUELA.

Within the last few days the sit
uation ia Venezuela has become so
! changed as to cause our government a
! great deal of uneas iness. 1t was be-
| heved that the trouble between Vene-
| zuela and the allies was in fair way
| 10 a peaceabIe settlement, and it was
! expected that within week or so all
the work for bringing the claims of
the allies against Venezuela before The
Hague Court OF Arbitration would be
completed and the blockade would be
raised.
The unexpected success Of the revo-
lutionists, however, has changed every
thing. II begins to look as If President
Castro would not be able to put down
the revolution. His treasury is empty
and it Is practically certain that his
army will not stand by him unless he
can pay it,
What would be the condition of af-
fairs if Gen. MatOs, the leader Of the
revolutionists. should overthrow Pres
ident Castro's government? Would he
carry out the terms of the agreement
that has been made with the allies, or
would he repudiate all that has been
done in the effort to effect settle
ment with them? That is a question
that Of course cannot be answered.
One significant thing is that the allies.
if reports are correct. have been as
sisting Gen. Mates. That would seem
to indicate that they want to SEE
President Castro driven from power.
Why is it they are against Presi-
dent Castro? Is it because they think
Gen. Matos would pay their claims
without arbitration or because they OBJ
jeCt to the settlement to which they
have agreed, and want a chance for
new deal? It is worthy of notice that
since the announcement of the proba-
bility that President Castro will not
be able to put down the revolution the
German newspapers have begun an at
tack on the Monroe doctrine, saying
that it has no standing in international
law ana that no nation is under obli-
cations to respect it. 1t is, hardly prob
able that Germany is thinking that she
VIII not Dt dDlt 10 COlltCL ntE CldlitlS
by means of arbitration, or that. if
Gen. Matos gets control of the coun-
try, she will not be able to collect them
at all by peaceful methods. and is
therefore considering the advisability
of grabbing Venezuelan territory. But
while there is but little. if any, ground
for taking that view of the case. it
cannot be said that Germany is not
looking towards the acquisition of ter
ritory as the means of compensating
herself for her claims.
Our government worked hard to
bring about arbitration-to have the
allies and Venezuela agree to arbitra-
tion-and it is apprehensive now that
it's efforts will be defeated by the fail
ure of President Castro to put down
the reTolution. 1t will of course con-
tinue its efforts in the direction of ar
bitration, and it may turn out that
President Castro will be able to MAIN
tain himself against his enemies, or
that If he fails, his successor will
favor the arbitration plan. A failure
of arbitration altogether would greatly
increase the chances of the United
States being brought into the imbrog-
10. President Roosevelt has strug-
gled hard to keep out of it, and there
is no good reason yet for saying that
he will not be successful but the pros
pect of the United States keeping out
of it is not as good as it was a week
or so ago, when the allies assented to
their claims being referred to The
Hague Tribunal for adjustment.