Mr. White to Mr. Hay.

[Telegram.—Paraphrase.]

(Mr. White reports that he has had an interview with the minister for foreign affairs and handed him a note containing the Venezuelan proposal embodied in Department’s telegram received this date. The minister for foreign affairs said he would confer with the prime minister and send an immediate reply, which Mr. White has received. It refers to acceptance of arbitration proposal; expresses hope that the President of the United States will consent to act as arbitrator; states that conditions under which such arbitration might take place have been fully considered and will be communicated to Mr. White within a few hours, and concludes as follows: “In these circumstances His Majesty’s Government prefer not to abandon the proposals which they have already made, proposals which seem to them to afford every hope of satisfactory settlement, in order to adopt the alternative procedure which the Venezuelan Government have apparently suggested.”)