Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1895, Part I

Mr. Adee to Mr. Bayard.

Department of State,
Washington, July 24, 1895.

No. 806.]

His Excellency Thomas F. Bayard,
Etc., etc., etc., London.

Sir: In Mr. Olney’s instruction No. 804, of the 20th instant, in relation to the Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute, you will note a reference to the sudden increase of the area claimed for British Guiana amounting to 33,000 square miles, between 1884 and 1886. This statement is made on the authority of the British publication entitled the Statesman’s Year Book.

I add for your better information that the same statement is found in the British Colonial Office List, a government publication.

In the issue for 1885 the following passage occurs, on page 24, under the head of British Guiana:

It is impossible to specify the exact area of the Colony, as its precise boundaries between Venezuela and Brazil respectively are undetermined, but it has been computed to be 76,000 square miles.

In the issue of the same List for 1886, the same statement occurs, on page 33, with the change of area to “about 109,000 square miles.”

The official maps in the two volumes mentioned are identical, so that the increase of 33,000 square miles claimed for British Guiana is not thereby explained, but later Colonial Office List maps show a varying sweep of the boundary westward into what previously figured as Venezuelan territory, while no change is noted on the Brazilian frontier.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

Alvey A. Adee,
Acting Secretary.