Mr. White to Mr. Hay.
London, January 14, 1903.
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 1024 of the 9th instant, I have the honor to confirm your telegraphic instructions of January 8 and 10, and of my telegrams of January 9 and 12.
I sought an early interview with Lord Lansdowne on Monday the 12th instant at Lansdowne House and asked him whether he had considered the request conveyed by Mr. Bowen in his telegram to you of the 8th instant which I had communicated to his lordship on the 9th, with respect to the raising of the blockade. I added that I had just heard from you that Mr. Bowen was very anxious to have the blockade of the Venezuelan coast raised at the earliest possible moment on account of the scarcity of provisions in Venezuela, whereby general distress had been rendered imminent, and that you had authorized me to bring the matter to his lordship’s attention in the hope that it might be taken into consideration with a view to an early determination of the blockade which, if possible, would, I said, be a source of gratification to our Government.
Lord Lansdowne replied that, although he had not conferred with his colleagues in the Government on the subject, he felt bound to say that it struck him as altogether premature to think of raising the blockade until His Majesty’s Government should be in full possession of the nature of the instructions furnished to Mr. Bowen by the Venezuelan Government. He suggested, however, that if I could make it convenient to call upon him at the foreign office in the afternoon he would see the prime minister meanwhile on the subject and inform me of the result of their discussion of the matter.
In the afternoon I again called upon Lord Lansdowne in accordance with his suggestion, when he gave me the answer, which I cabled you immediately afterwards. I asked him in the course of our interview whether, if President Castro should be willing to make an immediate cash payment in full settlement of those British claims included in the first category, the amount of which is, I understand, in the neighborhood of £5,000, there would be any possibility of this Government’s assenting to the immediate raising of the blockade, but he replied that [Page 471] he feared that course would not be practicable now that it had been arranged that everything should be discussed, and if possible settled, by Sir Michael Herbert and Mr. Bowen at Washington. I therefore asked Lord Lansdowne whether it might not be practicable to raise the blockade, in view of the general distress it was apparently causing, with a prospect of its possible reimposition in case it should turn out that Mr. Bowen had not been properly or fully authorized to effect a settlement upon the lines laid down in this Government’s memorandum of December 23 and in his lordship’s note of the 5th instant, but he replied that it would obviously be very inconvenient to renew a blockade which had once been raised.
I have just been again to see Lord Lansdowne—to-day being his reception day for foreign representatives—in case he might have something further to say on the subject of the blockade, and also to let him know that I had heard nothing of a rumor published in all the morning newspapers to the effect that President Castro had made the raising of the blockade a condition precedent to the negotiations upon which Mr. Bowen is now on his way to enter, and that this condition would have the support of Italy.
Lord Lansdowne had nothing further to say about the blockade and had heard nothing of the Venezuelan condition suggested in the inclosed paragraph, nor did he believe for a moment that Italy would separate herself from this country or Germany and initiate a separate policy with regard to Venezuela.
I ascertained during my conversation with his lordship that the instructions from this Government to His Majesty’s ambassador at Washington with respect to the negotiations upon which he is to enter upon Mr. Bowen’s arrival in Washington will be transmitted to his excellency to-day.
I have, etc.,