The San Francisco call., 1903-01-24
German Commodore
Alleges That Forts
Fired First.

BERLIN, Jan. 23.-CommOdore SCheder,
commander of the German fleet in Vene-
zuelan waters. officially reported the
bombardment of Fort San Carlos from
Maracaibo under date of January p, as
follows:
ION the 18th inst. while the Panther
was passing the Maracaibo bar, she was
unexpectedly attacked by Fort San Car
los, which opened a heavy fire on her.
To this the Panther replied and a cannon
ade was exchanged for half an hour. Ow-
ing to the difficulties of navigation the
Panther then desisted.
I'm order to exact an immediate punish
ment for this act, the more so as the Ven
ezGelan Government had proclaimed It
victory 1 bombarded the fort with the
Vineta the 21st inst. and destroyed it.
In the Relchstag to-day Foreign Secre-
tary Won Richthofen expressed the hope
that the Venezuelan difficulties would
soon be settled. The Foreign Secretary
had not then received the dispatch from
Scheder noted heretofore. He said:
The negotiations at Washington, It is
hoped, will show an early result, render
ing It possible to raise the blockade. So
long as the blockade exists. however. re-
speet for it must be enforced. The action
against Maracaibo was undertaken for
this purpose.
ARROGANCE OF CASTRO.
1T has been said," continued the For
eign Secretary, that we went into this
affair 'dashingly, with drums and trum-
pets Dashingly. l admit. from the mo-
rnent we appealed to arms. But with
drums and trumpets, I can. by no means.
admit. On the contrary, went to the
extreme limit of patience and long suffer
ing. The Venezuelan Government not
only refused to settle the debts contracted
with German citizens, is generally ad-
mitted 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 ba-
sis In one memorandum. communicated to
us through a note, Venezuela character
lied Our intended course in the affair
insulting, inadmissible. outrageous and
preposterous. We made proposals to set
tie the controversy by arbitration as
early July 1901. at a time when. by
way of exception, no civil war prevailed
in Venezuela and when the President was
fully able to satisfy our claims Pres
! ident Castro did not even deign to answer
this proposal.
SUSTAINS WARSHIPS' ACTION.
The assertion was made during the de-
bate that the navy had acted contrary to
international law in seizIng merchant
men. With the beginning of the blockade
state of war was created between us
| nd he hod
full right, and. from it's standpoint. also
| the obligation to capture Venezuelan
merchantmen. The English and Italians
did the same.
THE present diplomatic situation is as
| follows: plenipotentiary selected by
| Venezuela Minister Bowen, the United
States Minister to the republic of Ven
ezuela arrived three days ago from Car
acas. He has had conferences with the
representatives of Germany, Great Brit
ain and Italy. We can only hope that
the negotiations will soon reach result
that we shall soon get satisfaction and
we can raise the blockade. But, gentle
men. it must not be forgotten that block
aiding forces, so long as the blockade
lasts, absolutely must compel respect for
the blockade in the territory assigned to
| them. This was the probable reason for
! the action of the German ships against
| Fcrt 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
tie commander of the Fake, dated Cur
acao January %, and 1t says that ac-
cording to trustworthy information re-
ceived by him from Maracaibo the ships
Panther and Vineta bombarded, set fire to
and destroyed Fort San Carlos jan
uary 81.