Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 7, 1903

Mr. Bowen to Mr. Hay.

[Telegram.—Paraphrase.]

Legation of the United States,
Caracas, December 31, 1902.

(Mr. Bowen reports that he has received the following answer from the President of Venezuela:^a

I recognize in principle the claims which the allied powers have presented to Venezuela. They would already have been settled if it had not been that the civil war required all the attention and resources of the Government. To-day the Government bows to superior force and desires to send Mr. Bowen to Washington at once to confer there with the representatives of the powers that have claims against Venezuela, in order to arrange either an immediate setttement of all the claims or the preliminaries for a reference to the tribunal of The Hague, or to an American republic to be selected by the allied powers and by the Government of Venezuela. Mr. Bowen would be duly authorized to settle the whole question as the representative of Venezuela.

Cipriano Castro.

In view of the foregoing Mr. Bowen respectfully urges Mr. Hay to request the powers to immediately raise the blockade.)

1. For replies of the powers to the answer of the President of Venezuela contained in Mr. Bowen’s telegram of December 31, 1902, supra, see under Germany, page 434, Great Britain, page 467, and Italy, page 609. These replies were communicated to Mr. Bowen.