Mr. Lincoln to Mr.
Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
London, May 5, 1890.
(Received May 16.)
No. 229.]
Sir: In reference to the Venezuela boundary
question, I have the honor to acquaint you that, having received on the 2d
instant your telegraphic instruction, I had to-day by appointment an
interview with the Marquis of Salisbury, as I have informed you by a
cablegram. Lord Salisbury listened with attention to my statement, in making
which I was careful to keep within the lines of your instruction above
mentioned, and, after remarking that the interruption of diplomatic
relations was
[Page 338]
Venezuela’s own act,
he said that Her Majesty’s Government had not for some time been very keen
about attempting a settlement of the dispute in view of their feeling of
uncertainty as to the stability of the present Venezuelan Government and the
frequency of revolutions in that quarter, but that lie would take pleasure
in considering the suggestion after consulting the colonial office, to which
he would first have to refer it Upon my saying that in that case, perhaps,
he would like me to embody the suggestion in a note, he assented, and
accordingly, after leaving him, I sent to the foreign office the note of
which a copy is inclosed.
While Lord Salisbury did not intimate what would probably be the nature of
his reply, there was certainly nothing unfavorable in his manner of
receiving the suggestion; on the contrary, in the course of the conversation
he spoke of arbitration in a general way, saying that he thought there was
more chance of a satisfactory result and more freedom from complication in
the submission of an international question to a jurisconsult than to a
sovereign power, adding that he had found it so in questions with Germany.
If the matter had been entirely new and dissociated from its previous
history, I should have felt from his tone that the idea of arbitration in
some form to put an end to the boundary dispute was quite agreeable to
him.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 229.]
Mr. Lincoln to the
Marquis of Salisbury.
Legation of the United States,
London, May 5,
1890.
My Lord: As I had the honor to intimate to Your
Lordship verbally to-day, I have been instructed by my Government to
tender to Her Majesty’s Government the earnest good offices of the
United States, with a view to bringing about a resumption of the
interrupted diplomatic relations between Her Majesty’s Government and
that of Venezuela, as a preliminary step toward negotiations for the
amicable settlement by arbitration of the long-standing questions
respecting the boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana.
It is now more than 3 years since, at the time when diplomatic relations
had just been broken off, Your Lordship stated to my predecessor that
Her Majesty’s Government were for the time precluded from submitting the
questions at issue to the arbitration of any third power, and expressed
the continuing hope of a settlement by direct diplomatic negotiation
with Venezuela; and the Secretary of State of the United States feels
that a propitious time has arrived for endeavoring to promote a
settlement of the questions at issue, in view of the emphasis which has
just been given to the principle of international arbitration by the
joint proposals of Great Britain and the United States to Portugal.
I am accordingly instructed to suggest to Your Lordship that an informal
conference of representatives of Great Britain, Venezuela, and the
United States be had either in Washington or London, with a view to
reaching an understanding on which diplomatic relations between Great
Britain and Venezuela may be resumed, the attitude of the United States
therein being solely one of impartial friendship towards both parties to
the dispute in question.
Renewing the assurance of the great satisfaction which would be felt by
my Government in a successful exercise of its good offices in this
matter,
I have, etc.,
