The American embassy at Paris was authorized, when the difficulty began,
through the well-timed kindness of your excellency’s Government, and at
the instance of that of Venezuela, to take Venezuelan citizens residing
in France under its protection. The friendly feelings of which the
United States then furnished evidence to my country lead it to hope that
the request now made will be followed by an equally speedy and
satisfactory result.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Pulido to Mr.
Andrade.
Ministry of Foreign Relations of
Venezuela,
Caracás, April 17,
1895.
Sir: The matter to which this note relates
is deserving of special attention.
The rupture of relations with the French Republic was not, as is well
known, occasioned by Venezuela. Urgent necessity and the
requirements of the national honor decided the Chief Magistrate to
declare the representative of that nation unfitted to act as the
medium of the friendly relations cultivated by the two Republics.
The measure was one of a purely personal character; and the acts and
explanations which followed it, and which the French Government
would not await before breaking off its diplomatic intercourse with
us, are manifest evidence of the conciliatory spirit by which
Venezuela, from the very outset, wished to be guided, provided
always that the national dignity should not be in the slightest
degree impaired.
This Government is of the opinion that, if the French Government had
awaited the special communication which was addressed to it by
[Page 1477]
this ministry on the
same day that his passports were sent to its minister at Caracás,
which communication set forth, more fully than could be done by
cable, the reasons which led to the adoption of the measure, that
rupture, which Venezuela, from the very first, has regarded as an
act for which there was no necessity and no cause, would not have
occurred; the more so, as affection for France is with us an almost
inborn feeling, as is proved by the recent public demonstrations on
the occasion of the murder of President Carnot.
It by no means becomes either Venezuela or France to prolong this
state of ill feeling. The causes which gave rise to the attitude
assumed by this Government toward the person of M. Monclar are
discussed by the publicists and authorities of the greatest note,
and not one of them expresses any views which can be used as an
argument against the procedure adopted in this case by
Venezuela.
As the action of the President of the Republic was justified by a
series of weighty circumstances, as has been understood and declared
by the American press and a considerable portion of the European
press, it is well to attempt some friendly action which may put an
end to the dispute and restore harmony between two nations who have
long been living in sincere friendship with each other. To this end
this Government attaches great weight to the friendly intervention
of the United States, both on account of the high esteem which that
great Republic enjoys among other civilized nations and because it
is the chief nation of America, and the one called, so to speak, to
exercise its good offices most effectually in any difficulty that
may arise between the countries of this continent and the powerful
States of the Old World.
In requesting the United States Government to be pleased to authorize
its embassy in Paris to ask for the reestablishment by
honorable-means of the relations between Venezuela and France, the
executive power thinks that it is giving a very convincing proof of
the interest which it feels in that European Republic, and of its
earnest desire to continue to cultivate close and cordial relations
with it. The service which the United States will thereby render to
Venezuela will constitute both an act deserving of all our gratitude
and a species of homage to those principles of civilization which
tend to the establishment of permanent harmony between enlightened
nations, without prejudice to the political equality prescribed by
modern (international) law.
The documents bearing most directly upon the diplomatic incident in
question should accompany the petition of Venezuela, and, as you
will have to make a formal application on the subject to the
Department of State, inclosing a copy of this communication, I send
you1
herewith the following documents, in order that you may annex them
to the petition above referred to:
- I.
- The Italian Green Book, containing the protocol which
occasioned the step taken with reference to the French
minister. The document in question appears on pages
11–18.
- II.
- Documents of a public nature, connected with the incident
and with the order issued by the Venezuelan Government on
the 5th of March, published in the Gaceta Oficial of that
day.
- III.
- Resolution of the National Congress, approving the steps
taken in the matter by the President of the Republic.
(Gaceta Oficial of March 7.)
- IV.
- Circular of the minister of interior relations. (Gaceta
Oficial of March 8.)
- V.
- Communication from the minister of foreign relations to
the president of the National Congress, concerning the
rupture of political relations between Venezuela and France.
(Gaeeta Oficial of March 18.)
- VI.
- Reply of the president of Congress to the foregoing
communication. (Diario de Carácas, No. 444.)
- VII.
- Certified copy of the diplomatic note addressed to the
minister of foreign affairs of the French Republic on the
5th of March, giving an explanation of the circumstances
which had occasioned the dismissal of M. Monclar, the latter
part of which note contains an expression of the pleasure
which it will afford Venezuela to see a new representative
of the French Republic accredited to her.
As Belgium has not as yet made any demonstration incompatible with
the perfect harmony which Venezuela wishes to maintain in her
relations with that European State, the good offices of the United
States ambassador at Paris might be confined, on this point, to
conveying to the representative of His Majesty Leopold II, near the
French Republic, the expression of the pleasure with which a new
minister from that Kingdom will be received here, and of the earnest
desire of the Venezuelan Government that the ties of friendship
uniting the two nations may be strengthened and perpetuated. For
your better information, I inclose a certified copy of the
communication which was addressed on the 5th of March to the
department of foreign affairs of Belgium, upon sending his passports
to the chargé d’affaires of that Kingdom at Caracas.
It is well to recall here, as applicable to this case, the friendly
action taken formerly by the United States in settling the
difficulty which had arisen between Venezuela and France in 1881,
when M. Tallenay, the chargé d’affaires at Caracas, left the country
because the demands which he had presented in the shape of an
ultimatum were not granted. The kindly feeling then displayed by
theUnited States in reconciling the conflicting interests has always
been remembered by Venezuela with sincere gratitude.
I am, etc.,
