CASTRO'S UNIQUE RECORD.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10064, 4 February 1909, Page 4

CASTRO'S UNIQUE RECORD.

Personally, the fall of Castro leaves me inconsolable (says a write),' in a Home | paper). Among the potentates of this world there is none foT whom I have -cherished : a more tender feelin'g. Gastro had! iwhat very few .rulers can afford-, to have—a rich' and riotpus sense of humor, ffle not only, held Venezuela under'his thumb, but. he collected quarrels with other .Powers as a private individual collects prints- or coins. His polity and personality shone brilliantly against the decorous* drab of ordinary diplomacy. For the past .ten. years --he. has been the supreme - international jest. Only an ■ ungrateful dullard would also call him an international - nuisance. Where shall we now look for a man who "will "talk joyously of the inhabitants of' Europe and : the United States as "those ba-rljarians" ? -Where is the ruler to whom -blockades, ultimatums, embroilments -are the .-very 6pice and pastime of existence? Castro was unique.- It was rai;e for him not.'Jiave half a dozen international'enmities .on hand;, at the same moment. At one'time, or another he trod on,the toes of nearly every civilised.Power. He had the-honor-of' being blockaded by .the fleets of three of them. I am certain he received more ultimatums •. than a,ny man jiving-, and- that- his record of plenip9tentiaries insulted and concessions cancelled Temains unapproachable... "Hi's greatest achievement- was to bringthe 'United ' States, * Great Britain . and Germany - to the verge of a quarrel oyer his' precious rights and wrongs. Compared with that, the-invasion of Colombia;; the "-flouting of foreign ;bondhold'ers, and the dismissal of . foreign Ministers .were mere, works of idleness. Castro was at his best when hurling thunderboltsindiscriminatelyl at the United States and. the Powers of -Europe, challenging them to come on. The United Sjiates and the Powers of Europe ~would stand round Jiim in a, ring watchiiig ? his antics, anfcl abso- [ lutely at a loss .to know how to dteal with I them. Some Would-talk vaguely of naval'

,-j-tw ' i" ' *■*' . demonstrations; others would recall thenMinisters, only to be magnificently met by Castro's recalling his Ministers; others, again, would affect simply not to hear the blasts of defiance pealmg in their ears; most would ultimately resign themselves to putting up with it a little longer. The fact is that Castro in his day was more than a, match for the British, American, French, Dutch, Belgian, and Italian .Governments together. I do not suppose that at the merriest moment of the merriest, crisis he lost a single minute's sleep. The world had'lost its terrors for him. Secure in the knowledge that most Powers had money invested in Venezuela while Venzuela had not invested a penny outside her own boundaries, and trusting to the convenient fact that his country — a most difficult country, by the way. to invade —was a lavish debtor nation, Castro went- blithely on liis way, discovering every week or so new means of worrying the perplexed, respectable and helpless Towers who crossed liis path. A bare decad'e ago Castro was just an ordinary up-country ranchman, wholly unknown to fame, and no more prominent even in. his own land than a hundred other self-styled Generals. In the early nineties the mountaineers of his native province sent him to Caracas as their representative in the Federal Senate. The only notice Castro attracted in the capital was to be laughed at for liis Western, clothes and manners, lie returned to his ranch on the Colombian frontier nursing a grudge against the aristocratic rulers at Caracas, and chance soon gave him an opportunity of-paying it off. It was the habit of Venezuelan frontiersmen. when t,he tax-collector came round to drive their cattle over the Colombian border, offering a similar hospitality to Colombian ranchmen in their hour of need. The day of reckoning came when the tax-collectors of the two States, supported by troops, appeared simultaneously 011 either side of the frontier. There was a brush; among olhers Castro's cattle were seized and confiscated for non-pay-ment of taxes, his ranch was destroyed, and having no other means of livelihood he raised the standard of revoll. liis neighbors flocked round him; in a few weeks the local capital was entered, and Castro was proclaimed President of the Andine Province.

A call to play for bigger stakes swittlv followed 1 . Andrade at that time was President of the Republic. Towards the end of 1898 the military chieftains who nominally served under him decided that the time had come for another insurrection. They called in Castro and his mountaineers to help them, not doubting that when the proper moment arrived 1 he would be satisfied with some minor office or be otherwise disposed of. Castro responded, marched upon Caracas with 600 border bush-whackers, reached it, and was at once proclaimed President. The military •junta soon realised their mistake in pasJiing him forward. Castro sent them all packing, and surrounded himself with men recruited from the Andine provinces, his old brothers-in-arms. and a few stray adventurers who had helped him to power. From that moment his authority was absolute. He had, of course, to face the regulation number of risings, but he stantped them out without much difficulty and with an ample revenge. No President ever owned Venezuela more completely. He was the beginning and end of all legislation, of all decrees, of all official activities. Elections were still held, and the "citizen senators" and "citizen deputies" were still graciously addressed, by their President; the Constitution wa»> never formally suspended, but everyone knew that the Army, the Parliament, tlio Supreme Court, every office and every department were Castro's creatures and the j obsequious instruments of his will. Six I thousand troops and a closely woven mesh of espionage and censorship kept him informed of all that happened, and enabled him to crush disaffection instantly. It is quite a mistake to think that Castro preyed on foreigners alone. True, he developed a marvellous ingenuity in the business of cancelling foreign concessions. But there was ,no public utility, native or otherwise, in Venezuela that could hope to escape the Restoration. I3y monopolies, forced sales, and heavy taxationj Castro and his favorites obtained a rake-off on every form of industrial enterprise. Salt, coal, pearl fisheries, matches, coffee, cattle, rum, sugar, cocoa, gold mining, banks and railways were all laid under contribution. AH businesses and undertakings, of whatever kind, existed on sufferance, and had to pay for the privilege of being protected. And the country was too exhausted io explode. The only explosion that took place occurred in Castro's own head. His public addre«>es and the replies to them from Congress and the Press were a reproduction of the lines of Nero. Jlo talked of. himself as a second Bolivar, another Caesar, a Washington redivivus. The annual meeting of Congress was changed to lake place 011 the anniversary of the day on which' Castro set forth to overthrow Andrade.' His bust- replaced that of Bolivar 011 the Venezuelan stamps. His journeys through the country were an unimaginable mixture of pomp, extravagance, adulation, and revelry. The halfcaste, in short, remained true to his type, and the world is appreciably the duller now that he is condemned to the tedium of merely spending what he so richly earned.