Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JAN. 4. 1896. The Monroe Doctrine.

Manawatu Herald, 4 January 1896, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JAN. 4. 1896. The Monroe Doctrine.

Because it may suit party politic the President of the United Stales has fallen into the grave error of objecting to Great Britain landing up for its rights in British Guana, and has thus caused a hubbub that has proved a financial ruin to hundreds of the dwellers in the States. The disagreement between Great Britain and Venezuela is of a paltry character, being the defining of the boundary line between the two couatries. From some cause, at present not very clear, the Vene zuelans appear to have thought whatever action thpy might choose tn take would be backed up by the United States, a fact which has been satisfactorily shown to be utterly unreliable, by the Press, who have warned these belligerent folks that the United States were not. going to endorse anything they said or did. This is, perhaps rough on the Venezuelans, the President of whom wh3 r«pirt,ed as having reviewed his army in thfi capital of the Republic. He will have niw to express his pleßsnrp at hii soldiers evident, desire to die for th-ir country, and then to dismiss them for a future occassion, as even a Venezuelan army alone is not powerful

enough to engage in war with Great Britain. The President, General Ivaquin Crespo. who only assumed office on March 1894, will have to bead a masterly retreat io diplomacy

as we.", us in i'L-pjs

The United .States has been placed in a fearfully false position by its Presidpnt :~> f erferiug in this dispute with Venezuela. It is a little too much officiousneps for another, even though a friendly nation to interfere without being asked in matters it has no concern with. President Cleveland urges the much misquoted Monroe Doctrine for an excuse, but even the ablest of his own countrymen agree that it must be a most excessive stretching of this doctrine to afford even a shadow of an excuse. The Monroe Doctrine is roughly the declaration of America for those who are now occupying America. It is the doctrine of nonintervention of European powers in matters relating to the American continent. It received its name from statements contained in Presiden Monroe's annual message to Congress in December 1828, at the period of a suspected concert of the powers in the Holy Alliance to interfere in Spanish America in behalf of Spain. The following are the most significant passages in the message : —

"We could not view an interposition for oppressing them (ihe Spanish-American republics) or controlling in any other manner their des my by any European p nver, in any other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United Stat-s," ' » . ... " The American continents should no longer be subjects for any new European colonial settlement." By another authority it is stated 11 the only thing which the Monroe Doctrine really contains is the intimation on the part of the United StatPß of a right to resist attempts of European Powers /to alter the constitution of American communi ties." The dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela being about a boundary line it cannot bo urged that Great Britain desires to " control '' Venezuela, but simply desires to be permitted to control her own subjects residing in British Guana, and the question whether certain persons were dwellers in Venezuela or British Guana cannot be likened to being an attempt at " any mw European colonial settlement." With ihese important extracts from the doctrine before us the case .of President Cleveland looks bad indeed. The " doctrine " was published in the year 1823, but since that Euro pean powers have interfered in America in spite of the United States objecting. There was trouble in 1859 in Mexico when owing to injury to British subjeots, ships of war were sent to the coast. The country became involved in civil war and in 1861 owing to further gross outrages the British, French and Spanish governments agreed to combine hostile operations. In 1862 the Spanish and British forces retired after the punishment of the offenders. The French remained behind and the Arch duke Maximilian was crowned emperor. Soon afterwards (in 1865) the United Stares protested against the French occupation. The story of Maximilian's desertion by Napoleon 111 is but recent history, and resulted in the former monarch being cap tured and shot in 1867. The misfortunes of the emperor Maximilian had nothing to do with the protests of the United States. Proof is thus to hand that on a nabch more important occassion than the present one, the United States went no further in upholding the Monroe doctrine than protesting, and it would have been well had they done >nly as much this time.