The Secretary of State of Venezuela, soon after this refusal of Great
Britain to submit the boundary dispute to arbitration, in a despatch
dated the second day of April, 1884, still urged that method of
settlement, citing precedents and presenting arguments in its favor;
and in conclusion he asked the minister of the English Government at
Caracas “to have the goodness to think out and suggest any acceptable
course for attaining a solution of the difficulty.” This was followed,
a few days afterward, by another communication from the Venezuelan
Secretary of State, repeating his urgent request for arbitration. From
this communication it may not be amiss to make the following quotation:
Venezuela and Great Britain possess the same rights in the
question under discussion. If the Republic should yield up
any part of her pretensions, she would recognize the superior
right of Great Britain, would violate the above-quoted
article of the Constitution, and draw down the censure of
her fellow-citizens. But when both nations, putting aside
their independence of action in deference to peace and good
friendship, create by mutual consent a Tribunal which may
decide in the controversy, the same is able to pass sentence
that one of the two parties or both of them have been mistaken
in their opinions concerning the extent of their territory.
Thus the case would not be in opposition to the Constitution
of the Republic, there being no alienation of that which shall
have been determined not to be her property.
On the tenth day of June, 1884, arbitration was again refused in a curt
note from Lord Granville, declaring that “Her Majesty’s Government
adhere to their objection to arbitration as a mode of dealing with this
question.”
About this time complaints and protests of the most vigorous character,
based upon alleged breaches of the agreement of 1850 concerning the
non-occupation of the disputed territory broke out on both sides of
the controversy, and accusations of aggression and occupation were
constantly made. I shall not attempt to follow them, as in detail they
are not among the incidents which I consider especially relevant to the
presentation of my theme.
On the thirteenth day of December, 1884, Venezuela, in reply to a
proposition of the British Government that the boundary question and
certain other differences should be settled simultaneously, suggested,
in view of the unwillingness of Great Britain to submit the boundary
dispute to arbitration, that it should be presented for decision to
a court of law, the members of which should be chosen by the parties
respectively.
The British Government promptly declined this proposition, and stated
that they were not prepared to depart from the arrangement made in 1877
to decide the question by adopting a conventional boundary fixed by
mutual accord between the two governments. This was in the face of the
efforts which had been made along that line and found utterly fruitless.
Immediately following the last-mentioned proposition by Venezuela
for the presentation of the difficulty to a court of law mutually
chosen, negotiations were entered upon for the conclusion of a treaty
between Great Britain and Venezuela, which should quiet a difference
pending between the two countries relating to differential duties and
which should also dispose of other unsettled questions. In a draft of
such a treaty submitted by Venezuela there was inserted an article
providing for arbitration in case of all differences which could not
be adjusted by friendly negotiation. To this article Great Britain
suggested an amendment, making such arbitration applicable only to
matters arising out of the interpretation or execution of the treaty
itself, and especially excluding those emanating from any other source;
but on further representation by Venezuela, Lord Granville, in behalf
of the Government of Great Britain, expressly agreed with Venezuela
that the treaty article relating to arbitration should be unrestricted
in its operation. This diplomatic agreement was in explicit terms,
her Majesty’s Government agreeing “that the undertaking to refer
differences to arbitration shall include all differences which may
arise between the High Contracting Parties, and not those only which
arise on the interpretation of the Treaty.”
This occurred on the fifteenth day of May, 1885. Whatever Lord
Granville may have intended by the language used, the Government of
Venezuela certainly understood his agreement to include the pending
boundary dispute as among the questions that should be submitted to
arbitration; and all other matters which the treaty should embrace
seemed so easy of adjustment that its early completion, embodying a
stipulation for the final arbitration of the boundary controversy, was
confidently and gladly anticipated by the republic.
The high hopes and joyful anticipations of Venezuela born of this
apparently favorable situation were, however, but short-lived.
On the twenty-seventh day of July, 1885, Lord Salisbury, who in the
meantime had succeeded the Earl of Granville in Great Britain’s
Foreign Office, in a note to Venezuela’s envoy, declared: “Her
Majesty’s Government are unable to concur in the assent given by their
predecessors in office to the general arbitration article proposed
by Venezuela, and they are unable to agree to the inclusion in it of
matters other than those arising out of the interpretation or alleged
violation of this particular treaty.”
No assertion of the irrevocability of the agreement which Venezuela
had made with his predecessor, and no plea or argument of any kind,
availed to save the enlarged terms of this arbitration clause from Lord
Salisbury’s destructive insistence.
On the twentieth day of June, 1886, Lord Rosebery suggested for Great
Britain, and as a solution of the difficulty, that the territory within
two certain lines which had been already proposed as boundaries should
be equally divided between the contestants, either by arbitration or
the determination of a mixed commission.
This was declined by Venezuela on the twenty-ninth day of July, 1886,
upon the same grounds that led to the declination of prior proposals
that apparently involved an absolute cession of a part of her
territory; and she still insisted upon an arbitration embracing the
entire disputed territory as the only feasible method of adjustment.
This declination on the part of Venezuela of Lord Rosebery’s
proposition terminated the second attempt in point of time, to settle
this vexed question. In the meantime the aggressive conduct which for
some time the officials of both countries had exhibited in and near
the contested region had grown in distinctness and significance, until
Great Britain had openly and with notorious assertion of ownership
taken possession of a valuable part of the territory in dispute. On
the 26th of October, 1886, an official document was published in the
London “Gazette” giving notice that no grants of land made by the
Government of Venezuela in the territory claimed by Great Britain would
be admitted or recognized by her Majesty; and this more significant
statement was added: “A map showing the boundary between British
Guiana and Venezuela claimed by Her Majesty’s Government can be seen in
the library of the Colonial Office, Downing Street, or at the Office
of the Government Secretary, Georgetown, British Guiana.” The boundary
here spoken of, as shown on the map to which attention is directed,
follows the Schomburgk line. Protests and demands in abundance on the
part of Venezuela followed, which were utterly disregarded, until,
on the thirty-first day of January, 1887, the Venezuelan Secretary
of State distinctly demanded of Great Britain the evacuation of the
disputed territory which she was occupying in violation of prior
agreement and the rights of the republic, and gave formal notice
that unless such evacuation should be completed, and accompanied by
acceptance of arbitration as a means of deciding the pending frontier
dispute, by the twentieth day of February, 1887, diplomatic relations
between the two countries would on that day cease.
These demands were absolutely unheeded; and thereupon, when the
twentieth day of February arrived, Venezuela exhibited a long list of
specific charges of aggression and wrongdoing against Great Britain,
and made the following statement and final protest:
In consequence, Venezuela, not deeming it fitting to continue
friendly relations with a state which thus injures her,
suspends them from to-day.
And she protests before the Government of Her Britannic
Majesty, before all civilized nations, before the whole world,
against the acts of spoliation which the Government of Great
Britain has committed to her detriment, and which she will
never on any consideration recognize as capable of altering in
the slightest degree the rights which she has acquired from
Spain, and respecting which she will be always ready to submit
to a third power, as the only way to a solution compatible with
her constitutional principles.
Notwithstanding all this, three years afterward, and on the tenth day
of January, 1890, an agent of Venezuela, appointed for that purpose,
addressed a note to Lord Salisbury, still in charge of Great Britain’s
foreign relations, expressing the desire of Venezuela to renew
diplomatic relations with Great Britain, and requesting an interview to
that end.
A short time thereafter the Government of Great Britain expressed its
satisfaction that a renewal of diplomatic relations was in prospect,
and presented to the representative of Venezuela “a statement of the
conditions which Her Majesty’s Government considered necessary for
a satisfactory settlement of the questions pending between the two
countries.”
As the first of these conditions it was declared that “Her Majesty’s
Government could not accept as satisfactory any arrangement which did
not admit the British title to the territory comprised within the line
laid down by Sir R. Schomburgk in 1841; but they would be willing to
refer to arbitration the claims of Great Britain to certain territory
to the west of that line.”
Naturally enough, this statement was received by Venezuela with great
disappointment and surprise. Her representative promptly replied that
his government could not accept any single point of the arbitrary and
capricious line laid down by Sir R. Schomburgk in 1841, which had been
declared null and void even by the Government of her Majesty; and that
it was not possible for Venezuela to accept arbitration in respect to
territory west of that line. He further expressed his regret that the
conditions then demanded by Lord Salisbury were more unfavorable to
Venezuela than the proposals made to the former agent of the republic
prior to the suspension of diplomatic relations.
On the 19th of March, 1890, the British Government reiterated its
position more in detail. Its refusal to admit any question as to
Great Britain’s title to any of the territory within the Schomburgk
line was emphatically repeated, and the British claim was defined to
extend beyond any pretension which I believe had ever been previously
made except by Lord Salisbury himself in 1880. A map was presented
indicating this extreme claim, the Schomburgk line, and a certain part
of the territory between the boundary of this extreme claim on the
west and the Schomburgk line, which Great Britain proposed to submit
to arbitration, abandoning all claim to the remainder of the territory
between these last-named two lines. This scheme, if adopted, would give
to England absolutely and without question the large territory between
British Guiana’s conceded western boundary and the Schomburgk line,
with an opportunity to lay claim before a board of arbitration for
extensive additional territory beyond the Schomburgk line.
This is pitiful. The Schomburgk line, which was declared by the British
Government, at the time it was made, to be “merely a preliminary
measure, open to further discussion between the Governments of Great
Britain and Venezuela,” and which had been since largely extended in
some mysterious way, is now declared to be a line so well established,
so infallible, and so sacred that only the territory that England
exorbitantly claims beyond that line is enough in dispute to be
submitted to impartial arbitration. The trader is again in evidence.
On this basis England could abundantly afford to lose entirely in the
arbitration she at length conceded.
And yet Venezuela was not absolutely discouraged. Soon after the
receipt of Great Britain’s last depressing communication, she
appointed still another agent who was to try his hand with England
in the field of diplomacy. On the twenty-fourth day of June, 1890,
this new representative replied to the above proposal made to his
predecessor by her Majesty’s Government, and expressed the great
regret of Venezuela that its recent proposals for a settlement of the
boundary difficulty by arbitration affecting all the disputed territory
had been peremptorily declined. He also declared that the emphatic
statement contained in Great Britain’s last communication in reference
to this question created for his government “difficulties not formerly
contemplated,” and thereupon formally declined on behalf of Venezuela
the consideration of the proposals contained in said communication.
This statement of discouraging conditions was, however, supplemented by
a somewhat new suggestion to the effect that a preliminary agreement
should be made containing a declaration on the part of the Government
of Venezuela that the river Essequibo, its banks, and the lands
covering it belong exclusively to British Guiana, and a declaration
on the part of her Majesty’s Government that the Orinoco River, its
banks, and the lands covering it belong exclusively to Venezuela, and
providing that a mixed commission of two chief engineers and their
staffs should be appointed to make, within one year, careful maps and
charts of the region to the west and northwest of the Essequibo River,
toward the Orinoco, in order to determine officially the exact course
of its rivers and streams, and the precise position of its mountains
and hills, and all other details that would permit both countries to
have reliable official knowledge of the territory which was actually
in dispute, enabling them to determine with a mutual feeling of
friendship and good will a boundary with perfect knowledge of the case;
but in the event that a determination should not be thus reached,
the final decision of the boundary question should be submitted
to two arbitrators, one selected by each government, and a third
chosen by the other two, to act as umpire in case of disagreement,
who, in view of the original titles and documents presented, should
fix a boundary-line which, being in accordance with the respective
rights and titles, should have the advantage as far as possible of
constituting a natural boundary; and that, pending such determination,
both governments should remove or withdraw all posts and other
indications and signs of possession or dominion on said territory, and
refrain from exercising any jurisdiction within the disputed region.
On the 24th of July, 1890, Lord Salisbury declined to accept these
suggestions of the Venezuelan representative, and declared: “Her
Majesty’s Government have more than once explained that they cannot
consent to submit to arbitration what they regard as their indisputable
title to districts in the possession of the British Colony.”
Is it uncharitable to see in this reference to “possession” a hint
of the industrious manner in which Great Britain had attempted to
improve her position by permitting colonization, and by other acts of
possession, during the half-century since the boundary dispute began?
Efforts to settle this controversy seem to have languished after this
rebuff until March, 1893, when still another agent was appointed by
Venezuela for the purpose of reëstablishing diplomatic relations with
Great Britain, and settling, if possible, the boundary trouble and
such other differences as might be pending between the two countries.
As a means to that end, this agent, on the twenty-sixth day of May,
1893, presented a memorandum to the British Government containing
suggestions for such settlement. The suggestion relating to the
adjustment of the boundary question rested upon the idea of arbitration
and did not materially differ from that made by this agent’s immediate
predecessor in 1890, except as to the _status quo_, pending final
adjustment, which it was proposed should be the same as that existing
after the agreement of non-interference in the disputed territory made
by the two governments in 1850.
The plan thus suggested was declined by the Government of Great
Britain, because, in the first place, it involved an arbitration,
“which had been repeatedly declined by Her Majesty’s Government,” and,
further, because it was, in the language of the British reply, “quite
impossible that they should consent to revert to the _status quo_ of
1850 and evacuate what has for some years constituted an integral
portion of British Guiana.”
A further communication from the agent of Venezuela, offering
additional arguments in support of his suggestions, brought forth
a reply informing him that the contents of his note did not “appear
to Her Majesty’s Government to afford any opening for arriving at an
understanding on this question which they could accept.”
Six months afterward, on the twenty-ninth day of September, 1893, a
final communication was addressed by the representative of Venezuela to
the British Government, reviewing the situation and the course of past
efforts to arrive at a settlement, and concluding with the words:
I must now declare in the most solemn manner, and in the name
of the Government of Venezuela, that it is with the greatest
regret that that Government sees itself forced to leave the
situation produced in the disputed territory by the acts of
recent years unsettled, and subject to the serious disturbances
which acts of force cannot but produce; and to declare that
Venezuela will never consent to proceedings of that nature
being accepted as title-deeds to justify the arbitrary
occupation of territory which is within its jurisdiction.
Here closed a period in this dispute, fifty-two years in duration,
vexed with agitation, and perturbed by irritating and repeated failures
to reach a peaceful adjustment. Instead of progress in the direction
of a settlement of their boundaries, the results of their action were
increased obstacles to fair discussion, intensified feelings of injury,
extended assertion of title, ruthless appropriation of the territory in
controversy, and an unhealed breach in diplomatic relations.