Mr. Gresham to Mr. Andrade.
Washington, December 8, 1894.
Sir: On the 31st of March last you addressed to me a note on the subject of the disputed boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, accompanied by an historical memorandum giving the facts in regard to the controversy as they are understood by your Government; and on the 7th of July last, in response to my oral request, you furnished me with an additional copy of the memorandum in question.
Referring to our recent conversation, I have the honor to inform you that on the 13th of July last, a copy of your memorandum was sent to the U. S. ambassador in London, with instructions to aid, so far as his good offices might be found available, a resumption of the suspended diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Great Britain, with a [Page 841] view to eventual agreement for the disposition of the question by resort to arbitration or by any other couventional means comporting with the the honor and interests of the disputants. Mr. Bayard’s long familiarity with the question justified the President in intrusting to his sound discretion the further treatment of the matter at the Court of St. James in harmony with the declared attitude and policy of the United States as the impartial friend of both parties to the controversy.
Since that time Mr. Bayard has been in this country on leave of absence, and I am informed that you have availed yourself of the opportunity so afforded to confer with him in respect to the matter at issue.
In view of this, and of my recent conversations with you on this important subject, I shall take an early occasion to instruct the ambassador, supplementing my previous dispatch to him of July 13, and I do not doubt his willing interest in the matter and his cordial desire to contribute toward a better understanding between the two countries and the determination of their difference.
In this relation I may properly advert to the following passage of the last annual message of the President, which was laid before the Congress on the 3d instant:
The boundary of British Guiana still remains in dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. Believing that its early settlement on some just basis alike honorable to both parties, is in the line of our established, policy to remove from this hemisphere all causes of difference with powers beyond the sea, I shall renew the efforts heretofore made to bring about a restoration of diplomatic relations between the disputants and to induce a reference to arbitration, a resort which Great Britain so conspicuously favors in principle and respects in practice and which is earnestly sought by her weaker adversary.
Accept, etc.