The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-07-13
AMERICAN INTERESTS NOT
JEOPARD|zED in VENEZUELA

cused of Matchmaking and other crimes
in Venezuela. Captain Frank Parker,
military attache of our legation at
Caracas. wrote of Jaurett: IAN advent |
urer, ready to steal, lie, or blackmail
whenever opportunity presented, and
usually looking for such opportuni-
ties" To the ordinary man it would
seem that the case of Jaurett is one
for the police rather than the state
department; certainly no American
interest was destroyed" when Castro
cast him out. 1t cannot be for Jaurett
| that our legation is abandoned.
| II. and III. The cases of the Orinoco
Corporation and the Orinoco Steam
ship Company was rejected by umpires
designated by the United States and
Venezuelan Claims Commission, ap-
pointed under the protocol of arbitra-
ton signed by representatives of the
governments of the United States and
Venezuela in 1908, by the terms of
which the two governments agreed
that the decisions of the arbitration
were to be final and conclusive" No
governmental action" on the. part of
Venezuela was responsible for the ode
struction or confiscation' of any
american interests" in these instan-
ces. Venezuela is asked by our State
Department here to arbitrate claims
that have already been arbitrated.
| w. 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 with 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
claim" The United States and Vene.
zuela Company, in spite of this ex-
plicit agreement on it's part, has abso-
lutely refused to submit it's claim to
the Venezuelan courts; instead, it has
Lasked the government of the United
States to force President Castro to
recognize and be bound by the terms
of contract which the company itself
refuses to carry out OF be bound by.
" 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
istration is clearly urging Castro to
! arbitrate detected treason. Proofs col
lated from the. sworn testimony of the
trusts own officials show that the
trust instigated and financed the Matos
revolution against the government of
Venezula- AN uprising that in the
words of Hon. Jackson H. Ralston in
his report on the arbitrations of 1903
constituted "a great revolution, which
more than any other has desolated the
country, was of eighteen months dur
alton, and cost the nation more than
twelve thousand lives"
The evidence of the compliticy of the
Asphant Trust in the Matos revolution
was not sent to the senate by the state
department with the other material
comprised in Document No. Alb, but it
was submitted with ex-Secretary Eos
ter's brief April IA, and was published
widely in the newspapers. The atti-
tude of the Asphalt Trust and its adj
vocates aroused hundreds of Ameri-
can editors to denounce the purpose to
shelter its demands under the govern.
ment's wings, and the old reliable
American sense of Fair Play made it.
self heard. The senate declined then
to authorize a display of force in be-
half of the trust, or to send ships to
overawe Castro.
1t is undeniable that Venezuela
seized the Asphalt Trusts holdings in
that country, and still holds Them but
If any American interest was wrongful
ly destroyed or confiscated" in this
action, laws and customs concerning
the treatment of discovered rebels and
confessed conspirators will require
universal revision. The guilt of the
trusts officers is proven out of their
own mouths, and they have no stand
ing in justice or equity. In the regular
and dignified course of judicial pro-
cedure in the courts of Venezuela, to
whose Jurisdiction the trust solemnly
! bound itself in its contracts to sub
NIT, the Asphalt Trust has been for
mally adiudged guilty of conspiracy
and treason, and the seizure of it's
holdings has been iudiciouslv sustained