Mr. White to Mr. Hay.
London, February 14, 1903.
Sir: * * *
It is with great satisfaction that I have just heard, through the foreign office, of the signature at Washington yesterday of the protocols, which, as you will infer from your previous knowledge of the [Page 476] state of public feeling in this country with regard to the Venezuelan difficulty, and particularly to the agreement to cooperate with Germany, will cause as much pleasure and relief from anxiety to the Government and people of this country as to our own.
In view of the close of what I hope will turn out to be the only critical period of the controversy, I deem it proper to emphasize the great regard which has been shown throughout by His Majesty’s Government, not only for the Monroe doctrine, which Mr. Balfour truly said last night “has no enemies in this country,” but also for the views and wishes of our Government and for the feelings of our people.
I have had occasion to visit the foreign office nearly every day and Lord Lansdowne’s private residence, frequently out of foreign office hours, since the Venezuelan question became acute early in December, either to carry out instructions received from you, or to ascertain, with a view to keeping you properly informed at as early a date as practicable, the condition of the negotiations, and I have always found every readiness and even desire on the part of Lord Lansdowne and his subordinates to give me the fullest information as to the instructions sent to Sir Michael Herbert, and as to the communications between this Government and those of the other two cooperating powers.
Just before closing this dispatch I have had the further satisfaction of ascertaining from the foreign office that orders have been cabled to the commander of His Majesty’s naval forces in Venezuelan waters to raise the blockade.
I have, etc.,