I fully appreciate the right of the British Government to ignore the
request of the commission for such references to documents as will
enable it to verify the statements of the British Blue Book. It will be
quite impossible, I think, for this Government to find any fault if the
request is not acceded to. Yet, bearing in mind the manner in which the
present effort of the United States to settle this long standing
boundary question is now regarded by the British Government—that it has
been characterized in the highest official quarter as an endeavor to
ascertain the truth in cooperation with Her Majesty’s Government—I do
not feel at liberty not to bring the request of the commission to the
immediate notice of that Government. The object of the commission in
such request is unmistakably apparent upon the very face of its
communication. While setting on foot an original and independent
investigation of the source of knowledge, it desires such references to
authorities cited as will at once facilitate its work and at the same
time make it certain that nothing confirmatory of the British contention
is by any inadvertence overlooked.
You will communicate this dispatch, with its exhibit, to Lord Salisbury
by reading the same to him at the first opportunity and leaving a copy,
should he so desire—a copy being herewith inclosed for that purpose.
[Inclosure in No. 1118.]
Mr. Justice
Brewer to Mr. Olney.
Washington, D. C., May
6, 1896.
Sir: I beg to call your attention to the
following situation:
A vital question before the commission is whether there was ever any
actual Dutch settlement west of the Pomeroon and especially at or
near Barima Point.
The claim is broadly made in the British Blue Book “that by 1648 the
Dutch settlements in Guiana extended along the coast the whole way
from the River Maroni to the Barima.” The corollary from this, of
course, is that the treaty of Munster confirmed the title of the
Dutch to this entire territory—a corollary that is sought to be
enforced by the claim of subsequent, if not continued,
occupation.
[Page 243]
In support of this contention, it is stated in the Blue Book that “in
1684 the Dutch commander of Essequibo recommended that a strong
little post should be established at Barima in place of the small
watch-house that already existed there.” It is again stated that “in
the same year (1757) the Spanish commandant on the Orinoco
complained to the Dutch authorities of disorders at Barima, showing
that the Dutch then had jurisdiction there.” And again, that “in the
same year (1764) the Dutch West India Company, in a memorial to the
States General, declared that the colony of Essequibo comprised that
district of the northeast coast of South America which lies between
the Spanish colony of Orinoco and the Dutch colony of Berbice, and
was intersected not only by the chief river Essequibo, but also by
various small rivers, as the Barima, Waini, Maroco, Pomeroon, and
Demerara, wherefore also it bore the name of the colony of Essequibo
and dependent rivers.”
As authority for these statements, reference is simply made in a
general way to The Hague records; no documents nor extracts from
documents are given.
These general statements upon which the British Government apparently
bases its right to Point Barima find no recognition, so far as we
have yet ascertained, in the works of standard historians of the
colony, either English or Dutch. In fact, the most eminent of these
historians, Gen. P. M. Netscher, in summing up the whole controversy
in an article published during the present year in the Tijdspiegel,
seems to have found nothing in the Dutch archives to support the
British contention.
Whether the Dutch really occupied Point Barima in 1648 or not, it
would seem from a quotation given by General Netscher, taken from
the archives of the Zeeland Chamber, that by 1680 at the latest such
occupation, if it ever existed, had ceased and that the point had
been definitely abandoned.
The latest of the English historians of the colony, Mr. Rodway, goes
so far as to seem to put into the mouth of the Dutch West India
Company not merely a refusal to establish a post at Barima Point,
but the significant reply that “the Orinoco was too far away to be
safe; if the Dutchmen went there, the Spaniards might want to go to
Essequibo” (Rodway’s History of British Guiana, Vol. I, p. 36). In
view of the above seeming contradictions between the statements of
the British Government and those of standard historians, it seems to
us of the utmost importance to ascertain the precise wording and
purport of the passages relied on by the authors of the Blue Book,
and to ourselves have a thorough examination made of the Dutch
archives. With this end in view, we have concluded to send Prof.
George L. Burr to Holland to make such an examination. It would
assist him materially if the British. Government would furnish him
with a reference to the documents upon which the statements of the
Blue Book are based, and it has occurred to us that there would be
no impropriety in your communicating a request through our
ambassador at London to furnish such information. Professor Burr’s
address will be care of the United States minister at The Hague.
I remain, etc.,
David J. Brewer, President.
