Arizona republican., 1908-07-13
THE ASPHALT TRUST
 AND PRESIDENT CASTRO
The Probability That the Controversy
 Will Involve This Country in War.


 pondence of The Republican)- )-Prac-
 tically coincident with the arrival in
 the United States of MT. Jacob Sleep CT, the recently recalled charge d'af- fairs in Venezuela, the text of the cor
 respondence that passed between MT.
 Sleeper and SenOr Paul, the Venezuela minister of foreign affairs, has been made public. MT. Sleeper's very care fully worded message of farewell states explicitly that he abandons his post under orders direct from Washington, and in diplomatic terms announces that the efforts begun last winter to compel President Castro to capitulate to the asphalt trust have undergone no modification.
 In his letter of withdrawal, MT Sleeper says that his orders are based upon Castro's persistent refusar to lgive redress for action by him "by which all American interests in this country (Venezuela) have been des- troyed or confiscated, or to submit the claims for such redress to arbitra- tion." This charge is denied at length in Minister Paurs reply to MT Sleep CT.
 The claims set forth in Secretary Roots communication to the senate at Washington, March 27th last, were nominally five in number though it Is ! the general belief that if the asphalt trust was satisfied by Castro the other claims" would never be heard of again The claims" enumerated b. MT. Root are as follows:
 l. The claim Of A F. Jaurett
 ?. The claim of the Orinoco Corpor- a:lon.
 :. The claim oe the Orlnocc Steam shir company.
 4. The claim of the United States and Venezuela company.
 :. The claim of the New York and Buermudez company Che asphalt trust)
 To take up these claims" in the order given, and to find their present stetus. it is only necessary to refer to lsenaie document No. 413, filed at the last session of congress and to the brief flied with the senate committee on foreign relations by ex-Secretary of State John w. Foster on the 1ith of April:
 1 JGurett claims to be an American citizen hy naturalization, who was ex- pelled from Venezuela by Castro's or der. In offset to his demand fo- $e5,.- 0C0 da naSes, it is alleged by he Ven ezueiln government that Jaurett was driven from that country because of his proved complicity in-the Mates rev olution. and for grossly libelliuS Vene- Eucla and her officials in the press oc the United states and other countries. that his claim to be an American citi- zen is based upon fraud and perjury: tiIIt he $ q fugitive from France hay ing deserted from the French army, and likewIse a fugitive from justice in >exirn. i'll which country he has hcen indicted for crime; and that he was openly accused of blackmailing and other crimes in Venezuela. Captain Frank Parker, military attache of our legation at Caracas wrote of Jaurett: An adventurer, ready to steal, lie or blackmail whenever opportunity pre- sented, and usually looking for such opportunities" To the ordinary man it would seem that the case of Jaurett is one for the police rather than the state department; certainly no Amer ican interest was destroyed" when Castro cast him out. It canont be for 
 II. and III The cases of the Ori- noco Corporation and the Orinoco Steamship company were rejected by umpries designated by the United States and Venezuelan claims commis- sion, appointed under the protocol of arbitration signed by representatives of the governments of the United States and Venezuela in 1903 by the terms of which the two governments agreed that the deicisoins of arbitra- ton were to be final and conclusive No governmental action" on the part of Venezuela was responsible for the -"destructjon or cOnfiscatiOn" of any American interests" in these in stances. Venezuela is asked by our state department here to arbitrate claims that have already been arbi trated
 " In the matter of the United States and Venezuela company, the Venezuelan government insists that the company shall carry out and abide by the terms of a contract which the company itself alleges to be valid and subsisting That contract provides | that "all disputes and controversies arising out of it shall be settled by the Venezuelan courts, and shall not be made the bases of international claims" The United States and Vene- l zuela company. in spite of this ex- plfcit agreement on it's part, has abso- | lutely refused to submit it's claim to the Venezuelan courts; instead, it has | asked the government of the United States to force President Castro to recognize and be bound by the terms | of a contract which the company it. self refuses to carry out or be bound l by.
 V. In the claim of the New York ] and Bermudez company (the asphalt trust) is found the cruX of the whole | matter. Here the Washington admin l istration is clearly urging Castro to | arbitrate detected treason, Proofs col l lated from the sworn testimony of the trusts own officials show that the ] trust instigated and finaced the Mates | revolution against the government of | Venezuela-an uprising that in the words of Hon. Jackson R. Ralston in his report on the arbitrations of 1903, | constituted "a great revolution, which | more than any other has desolated the 1