New-York tribune., 1903-01-24
GERMANY'S SIDE STATED.
DEFENDED INREICHSIAG
Long Suffering sciM pene2uelo' Says
FOREIGN Minister.

Rerlin Ian 23-In the Reichstag to-day L or
eign Secretary Won Richthofen expressed the
hone that the Venezuelan difficulties would soon
be settled. He said:
The negotiation at Washington, 1t is hopsue p',se
will show an early result rendering IL possip,,e
TO raise the Blockade. SO long as the plochauS I
exists however respect for IT must be eniorGeu
The action against Maracaibo was undertaheh
for this purpose.
The Foreign Secretary continued;
1t has been said that we went into this analr an
''dashingly with drums and trumpets. an-
ingly" | admit from the moment Wheh we ap
pealed to arms. But with drums anu nu n,
pets" l can by no means admit On tiie ,na 80
md iong suffering The Venezuelan Govern
ment not only refused TO settle the uepls III, III
tracted with German citizens, as Is sett+ad
admitted, but at the same tline n connI'' ond
bT,,tal acts of violence against Germans ana
German property. We mace complaint pi Ala
matters through diplomatic channeis, "a; pu no sis
not succeed in making progress upon TINS pa'is -
The Venezuelan Government declared tilaI a.;
must exclude all these cases from up.antaS
treatment. In one menoranoulll .na o,,r in
to us through note, IT characteilLsu III I'D
tended course in the affair as insulting, lIaS ne
rnssihle outrageous and preposterous. we -. -:
proposals to settle the controversy icy a. 49, ~,
tion as earlv as July. 1901. at time Wheh, Ds
way of exception. no civil war PreNoea ~,
Venezuela and when the President "as - o,,r
able 10 satisfy our claims. In a nole oI ~
charge d'affaires. July 16, 1901, the Ioio"iHe
language was used: ,.o- ~
1
submitting verbally to your exceliency Is ny oIe
following: The Venezuelan Government on o. ~
part in the imperial minister resident oIl .i.s
other part are each to select one repre -
who shall Jointly examine the claims OF German
citizens growing out of the civil wars. III eNe,!
case where both representatives asiee oil - IL
payment of an indemnity 1T must be lmmeaiateiy
Maid In cases where they fail to reacp an
agreement the matter shall become the SuuJec'
of special conferences between the NeIieHuso
Government and the German Minister hesioel,.
Should these conferences also reach no result
then some outside authority, like The hague
International Court of Arbitration: must De Sc
lected to settle the disputed cases.
The idea of submitting the matter to dd1 dhe
Hague court therefore dates from July, lsol.
President Castro did not even delgn 10 answer
this proposal.
The assertion was made in the course OF the
debate that the navy had acted contrary 70 M
ternational law in sezing merchantmen Win
the beginning of the blockade state OF war
was created between us and Venezuela ana 'ne
navy had the full right and. from its point OF
view. also the obligation to capture Nenezuelan
merchantmen. The English and Italians ala
the same The present diplomatic situation Is
follows:
a plenipotentiary selected by Venezuela, Mr..
Bowen. the United States Minister to the he
public of Venezuela arrived three days ago at
Washington from Caracas. He has had CONFER
ences with the representatives of Germany,
England and Italy. We can only hope that
these negotia tions will soon reach a result. that
we shall soon get satisfaction. and that we can
raise the blockade But, gentlemen, 1t must not
be forgotten that blockading forces, so long as
the blockade lasts, absolutely must compel re-
spect for the blockade in the territory assigned
to them. This the probable reason for the
action of the German ships against Fort san
Carlos during the last few days. We are with
out any official news from there Yes, gentle
men, we have hitherto received but one dis
patch from the commander of the Fake, dated
Curac Goa January %, and it says
According to trustworthy information re-
ceived (by him) from Maracaibo, the ships
Vineta and Panther bombarded, set fire to and
destroyed Fort San Carlos on January II.
Gentlemen, this easily explained why we have
no news. 1t hardly be otherwise. Two or
three ships engaged in the operations. In
such a situation ii is quite impossible for the
commodore to send one of these ships to the
nearest telegraph station Curacao, in order to
transmit dispatches. for he would then have to
do without this ship for at least two days which
is impossible owing to the presence of only two
Or three ships the blockade. The commodore
cannot the land lines through Venezuela,
but must depend upon the nearest non-Venez-
uean station, Curacao.
How far the private news from Maracaibo Is
true or false cannot be determined at this dis
tance. In other words, Maracaibo is too far
from the scene of action enable to follow
the action in its details. B''t believe can
Internationally assume that you will all agree
that our commodore out there acted from a full
and correct appreciation Of the situation, and
that our bluejackets will maintain the honor OF
our flag.