Acting Secretary of State Adee to Minister Bowen.
Washington , August 15, 1904 .
(The Department has carefully examined the Venezuelan Government’s complaint on which Bermudez Lake, belonging to New York and Bermudez Company, has been forcibly seized, and finds, quite apart from any question of illegality, no substantial justification for such seizure, which appears, under the circumstances, irregular and wholly unnecessary. It is not even alleged that the company has failed to pay all sums due the government on asphalt taken and exported. The complaint, moreover, wholly disregards title of mine obtained by company December 7, 1888, under Venezuelan mining law, and definitive title to land obtained by purchase December 14, 1888, which titles in terms give the company as legal proprietor the right to hold and work Bermudez Lake independent of Hamilton concession. [Page 938] Seizure of property enforces on company enormous losses, renders it unable to fulfill existing contracts, and all this in advance of judicial determination, which the Venezuelan Government now professes to desire. Mr. Bowen is instructed, therefore, in the interest of justice and international harmony, to request the Venezuelan Government to direct the attorney-general to move the discharge of the receiver and to restore to the company its seized property pending decision reserving all rights in case of denial of justice.)