Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-24
POSITION OF GERMANY
EXPLAINED IN REICHSTAd BY
SECRETARY Won RICHTHoFEN.
Action in the Venezuelan Matter Up
held by the Secretary of For
eign Affairs.

A dispatch from Berlin yesterday says:
In the reichstag today Foreign Secretary
Won Richthofen expressed the hope that the
Venezuelan difficulty would soon be settled.
He said:
THE negotiations at Washington, 1t Is
hoped, will show an early result. rendering
1t possible to raise the blockade. So long
as the blockade exists. however. respect for
it must be enforced. The action against
Maracaibo was undertaken for this pur-
pose"
ut has been said.' continued the foreign
secretary, that we went into this affair
'dashingly. with drums and trumpets.
'Dashingiy,' 1 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 patience and long suffer
ing The Venezuela government not only
refused to settle the debts contracted with
German citizens as is generally admitted,
but at the same time committed brutal acts
Of violence against Germans and German
property.
I'VE made complaint Of these matters
through diplomatic channels. but did not
succeed in making progress upon this basis.
The Venezuelan government declared that
it must exclude all these cases from dip
lOrnatic treatment In one memorandum,
communicated to us through note, 1t
characterized our intended course in the
affair as insulting, inadmissible, outrageous
and preposterous We made proposals to
settle the controversy by arbitration as
early as July. 1901. at time when. by way
OF exception, no civil war prevailed in
Venezuela, and when the President was
fully able to satisfy our claims
I'm note of our charge d affafres July
16, 1901, the following language was used:
The proposition which l 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 rep
resentative. who shall Jointly examine the
claims Of German citizens growing out of
the civil wars. In every case where both
representatives agree on the payment of an
indemnity 1t must be paid Immediately In
cases where they fail to reach an agree
ment the matter shall become the subject
OF conferences between the Venezuelan
government and the German minister resi-
dent. Should these conferences also reach
no result, then some outside authority, like
Inc Hague international court of arbitra-
ton, must be selected to settle the dsputed
cases.
The idea of submitting the matter to
Inc hague court therefore. dates from
July. 1901. President Castro did not even
deign to answer this proposal
Ihe assertion was made during the de-
bate that the navy had acted contrary to
international law in selling merchantm
With the beginning Of the blockade a state
OF war was created between us and Vene-
zuela. and the navy had the full right and
from Its standpoint. also the obligation to
capture Venezuelan merchantmen. The
English and Italians did the same
THE present diplomatic situation is as
follows: A plenipotentiary selected by Ven
lister to the republic of Venezuela. arrived
three days ago at Washington from Cara
cas- He has had conferences with the rem
resentatiyes Of Germany, England and Italy.
hon hot
will soon reach such result that we shall
soon get satisfaction and that we can raise
the blockade. But, gentlemen 1t must not
De FORGOTTEN that blockading forces. so long
as the blockade lasts. absolutely must COM
pei respect for the blockade in the terri
tory assigned to them. This was the prob
able reason for the action of the German
ships against Fort San Carlos during the
past few days. We are without any official
news from there. Yes, gentlemen we have
hitherto received but one dispatch. from
the commander Of the Fake dated Curacao
January %. and 1t says:
According to trustworthy information
received (by him) from Maracaibo the ships
Vineta and Panther bombarded set fire to
and destroyed Fort San Carlos January 21'
This easily explained why we have no
news. 1t can hardly be otherwise. Two
or three ships are engaged In the operations.
In such situation ii is quite Impossible
for the commodore to send one Of these
ships to the nearest telegraph station Cura-
Gao, In order to transmit dispatch, for
he should then have to do without this
ship for at least two days. which Is fmpos-
sible, owing to the presence Of only two or
three ships on the blockade. The commo-
dore cannot use the land lines through yen-
ezueia, but must depend upon the nearest
non-Venezuelan station. Curacao.
How far the private news from Mara
caibo is true or false cannot be- determined
at this distance In other words. Mara
caibo Is too far from the scene OF action
to enable ussto follow the action In its de-
tails. But believe I can Internationally
assume that you will all agree that our
commodore out there acted from full and
correct appreciation Of the situation and !