BOLD SCHEMES IN SOUTH AMERICA. Trouble With Venezuela. DESIGNS ON PERU. The United States Aroused. New York, August 18.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 222, 1 October 1887, Page 3

BOLD SCHEMES IN SOUTH AMERICA. Trouble With Venezuela. DESIGNS ON PERU. The United States Aroused. New York, August 18.

Guzman Blanco, the President of Venozucla, is stopping at the Windsor Hotel. He said in an interview : " The boundary question between Venezuela and the colony of Demarara is of the greatest interest to Venezuela and the United States. I am astonished beyond measure that the press of America lias failed to make a note of the acts of Great Britain in her appropriation of the tonitory of Venezuela, south of the Orinoco. South America is dhided into three gi eat sections — the one watered by the Orinoco, one by the Amazon, and one by the La Plata. Tho great prosperity of these three divisions depends upon the free access of commerce to tho three great rivers. The Orinoco belongs to Venezuela, who is heir to it fiom the Spaniards. The English are acquiring territory along tho Orinoco and the Amazon, and haye actually taken possession of the territory bordering the Orinoco river at its mouth, an act which Venezuela cannot allow, and in consequence of which it has suspended relations with England, given passports to the English Ministers and representatives, and has applied to the United States to act as an arbitrator in behalf of Venezuela. "The English Government has denied the right of arbitration in the matter. Venezuela now proposes to send a sufficient army, haviitg a few thousand soldiers to drive tho English usurpers from her territory. As a result, it is hoped that the United States Government will intervene to terminate the question, requiring Great Britain to submit to arbitration."

The Financial Conquest of Fern. Michael P. Grace, of New York, has been in London for several weeks, in active cooperation with certain English bondholders, trying to carry out his bold scheme for financial conquest in Peru. With the assistance of a party of Englishmen, headed by Sir Henry Tyler, he has been trying to float bonds amounting to £10,000,000 upon the English market. Thus far he has not been successful. If he should succeed in carrying out tho programme of his financial associates, the interests of the United States in South America will be seriously threatened. His success would certainly direct the United States Government to seriously protest against the Grace-English bondholders' scheme. At the beginning of the war between Peiu and Chili, Peruvian bonds to tho amount of £60,000,000 were held in London. These bonds were secured by guano deposits. Aftei Chili gained the victory she took Tacna, Arica and Tarapaca, the guano provinces, leaving the English debt unsecured. Recently the Grace combination has secured from the Peru\ian Government a contract containing enormous grants of privileges, such as exclusive banking, railroad, express, telo graph, etc., and to receive part of tho Customs revenue, etc. Practically this grant surrenders Peru to this syndicate. This contract is to be ratified yet by the Peruvian Senate, but as tho President of Peru is said to be interested in the plan with all of the leading Government ofiieials, it is represented here in London that there is not the slightest question about its being carried through. The consideration to be paid by the syndicate for these enormous concessions is £10,000,000, to be raised by the Grace combination from the public through the sale of bonds. The English holders of Peruvian bonds who are in the Grace syndicate also agree in further consideration to cancel one-half of the old debt, amounting to £30,000,000 ; and it is further understood that the English bondholders of tho uncancelled half seek to secure the aid of the English Government to compel Chili to surrender enough of tho captured provinces to guarantee tho payment of tho uncancelled half of the debt. It lias been represented to high English officials that the action of Chile in capturing the guano provinces was so opposed to English interests as to warrant a demand from them, securing the interest of the English bondholders. They say that England's action in Egypt warrants her taking similar action against Chili. The English officials are further tempted with the" prospect of gaining Peru for an English colony. There are so many millions involved in this scheme that a number of powerful English influences have been secured to force Government action in favour of the syndicate's plan. If they can get anything in that direction the new loan will be floated and the plan for making Peru an English colony will then be pushed along.

American Oppositioßi. The United States press professes to be alarmed at the prospect opened up by the above news. The " San Francisco Chroni- j cle " says : — "It needs no wizard to tell what England's course will be toward Peru if this loan is effected in accordance with Grace's plan. It would be almost no time at all before there would bo an army of occupation in Peru to look after the interests of British subjects, just as there ia in Egypt to - day ;

and Pern, in its present condition, enfeebled by the Chilean war and with a bankrupt treasury, would be quite unable to offer evon a show of insistence. The obvious result would be that Peru would become an outlying province of Great Britain and the British authority would be supreme. Bab if such a daring scheme is attempted to be carried out, England will find two nations that will not protest but be ready to enforce their objections, Chili and the United States. Chili will surely not consent to see her next-door neighbour fall under the domination of so powerful a nation as Great Britain, more especially as it would involve a surrender of the three* guano provinces seized from Peru during the recent war. Chili would not dare to [consent to a peaceable occupation of Peru by Great Britain, as their interests would certainly conflict. As to the United States, if the- Monroe doctrine means anything, it must mean that we cannot and will not consent to see a South American republic converted into a dependency of Great Britain. England may lend Peru money and may enforce the claims of her citizens against Pern, but that is all. The moment she attempts to repeat the Egyptian experiment, that moment the United States will not onlyprotest, but will directly forbid."