The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1888. ENGLAND AND VENEZUELA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1994, 22 November 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1888. ENGLAND AND VENEZUELA.

In recent telegrams reference has been made to a dispnte which has occurred between Great Britain and Venezuela with respect to the boundary line between the possessions of that state and British Guitna. An American paper jast to hand gives the following information on the subject : — " The fTssequibo river was at first regarded as marking the line between the Bepublio and British Guiana, but gradually the boundary claims hare been shifted, with the alleged intent of reaching the Orinoco river, until a strip of country 250 miles m width west of the ■ E'Bseijuibo Lao been- inuludecL m tbo claim? of the British foreign office, comprising the 'gold-bearing district of Yurari, the phenomenal rienness of which engages the attention of miners and mining investors from the old and new world." . . ■ It is rumored that Great Britain intends to extend her territory westward and northward from the coast, 'through British Guiana, until her possessions m the interior x>f South America rival m extent and value the empire of Brazil, and the Venezuelan episode is supposed to be the opening act m the scheme. It would certainly give Great Britain, through the Orinoco and its tributaries, a most important inlet into the interior of South America, and m view of the comparative poverty of the young republics whose territory borders on the interior tract, Venezuela, the United States of Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, she would meet with little local opposition m any attempt she might make to so define their inner boundaries as to leave herself a big slice of unoccupied country." The journal from which the foregoing is taken (the " Australasian and South American" of October 12) asserts that there is " absolutely no foundation 1 ' for the British claim " either m the British, the Dutch, or the Spanish records'' ana that ifc is the miperal wealth of Venezuela "which has probably excited the cupidity of the immigrants from British Guiana and elsewhere, who are anxious to stir up such strife between Great Britain and Venezuela as will lead to the seizure of the letter's most valuable gold-bearing bC?tion." That statement, however, must nateraUy be accepted' with a grain of salt, as America jealousy of British domonion anywhere on the great western continent peeps out m the suggestion" that t-enor de Silva, the Venezuelan Minister to Washington" will it is supposed, m the event of hostilities with Great Britain," invoke the good officeß of the United States m settling the trouble" and the declaration appended that this "is manifestly a case to which the Monroe doctrime can be properly applied " and that "it could not be advanced m support of a worthier cause." It ig added that 11 Venezuela's protests against the progress of British encroachments either receive a contemptuous reply or are passed by unnoticed by the British foreign office, and at any time, the attempt to dtive Venezuelans from the Yurari district and hand it over to British dominion, may provoke hostilities. The republic has repeatedly offered to lay its claims at to the disputed boundary, with those of Great Britain, before^ impartial arbitrators, relying on the justice of its case, but all snob, offers, m spite of British professions of respect for the principle of arbitration, are stubbornly rejected and probably will be until either there is nothing left to arbitrate, or until some power that can com • niand attention steps m to champion Venezuela's cause. 1 ' The last few words (.which we have .italicised) savor just ja little of bounce and the tone of the article generally indicates anti -British sympathies which force us to the conclu- '. ■ion that the question has been looked at from one side only, and that when the \ full diplomatic correspondence i* put> i lished it will be found that there is much 1 to befsaid per contra ; andit is always well ' to remember that " one story is good till ]