Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1905
Minister Bowen to the Secretary of State.
Caracas, Venezuela, August 21, 1904.
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith copies of the cablegrams that have passed between Washington and this legation since the departure of the last mail and copies of my correspondence with the Venezuelan foreign office and of papers filed in this legation by the manager of the New York and Bermudez Company during the last two weeks.
I am, etc.,
Minister Bowen to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Caracas, Venezuela, August 20 [15?], 1904.
Mr. Minister: My government has examined carefully the complaint of the Venezuelan Government by virtue of which the asphalt lake belonging to the New York and Bermudez Company was forcibly seized, and finds, quite apart from any question of illegality, that no substantial justification for taking such a step exists. It appears, in fact, irregular and wholly unnecessary. No allegation even is made that the company failed to pay all the sums due to the Venezuelan Government on the asphalt that was taken from the lake and exported. The complaint, moreover, wholly disregards the title to the lake that was obtained by the company on December 7, 1888, under the Venezuelan mining law and the definitive title to the land that was obtained by purchase December 14, 1888. Those titles give to the company, as legal proprietor, the right to hold and to work the asphalt lake independent of the Hamilton concession. The seizure of the property entails on the company enormous losses and renders it unable to fulfill its existing contracts; and the seizure, moreover, was made before any careful judicial investigation was held such as now the Venezuelan Government professes to desire.
In view of those facts my government instructs me to request, in the interests of justice and international harmony, that the Venezuelan Government direct the attorney-general of Venezuela to secure the removal of the receiver, and to restore to the company its property pending the final legal settlement of the case.
In making that request I have the honor to reserve all rights in case there be a denial of justice.
I gladly avail, etc.,
The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Minister Bowen.
Mr. Minister: The circumstance that in my note of the 6th instant all the facts were explained relative to the case which is going on against the New York and Bermudez Company does not permit me to understand the reason which your excellency has had to affirm, among other things, in your note of the 7th instant, that the asphalt mine is in possession of Venezuelan soldiers and of a receiver named by the Government of Venezuela. What you say about the soldiers is absolutely inexact, and the origin to which your excellency attributes the appointment of the receiver does not conform at all to the evidence which the proceedings furnish. It is enough to know that the appointment of the receiver can not be made except by the courts, and that the person called upon to exercise duties as such is not selected by the litigants and only has the powers the law indicates.
I deem it unnecessary to insist on those points which already I have had occasion to examine, and since your excellency informs me that my aforesaid note has been sent to Washington, it is firmly hoped that as the charges therein are disproved that are directed against Venezuela, and the matter is given the character which reasonably belongs to it, the Government of the United States, far from concluding that a case for diplomatic intervention has arisen, will recommend to the company, as it has been accustomed to do in analogous cases to its citizens, that it should betake itself in defense of the rights which it believes it possesses to the courts of this country. As is well known, the United States has maintained on more than one occasion the principle that actions relative to the interpretation or existence of contracts made by its citizens with foreign governments can only be decided by the courts of the nation where the contracts were made and in conformity with the laws that existed there.
I avail myself, etc.,
The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Minister Bowen.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of the 15th instant, relative to the matter of the New York and Bermudez Company. In the notes which up to the present 1 have directed to your excellency the Venezuelan Government [Page 940] has submitted to that of the United States faithfully and in a friendly way explanations about the proceedings taken against the company, explanations which, as it is just to suppose, will have left the Department of State at Washington well informed and completely satisfied. As to the points contained in the aforesaid note of your excellency, the President of the Republic has charged me to say to you that as they are all related to the sequence of the action instituted in the courts, the government leaves entirely the decision of them to the court before which the representatives of the Bermudez company are to-day defending their rights with all the securities, guarantees, and liberties which the laws and the constitution of the Republic prescribe. Moreover, every question arising from damages or injuries finds in our laws adequate methods of procedure. The reservations which your excellency makes in the last part of the said note, in case diplomatic intervention could be undertaken, require logically and indispensably the conclusion of the action that has been begun, and consequently I confirm all that I have had the honor to maintain in my previous communications.
Accept, etc.,
Minister Bowen to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Caracas, Venezuela, August 20, 1904.
Mr. Minister: In answer to your excellency’s note, No. 993, of to-day’s date, I have the honor to inform you that it will be sent by this next post to my government, which by this time must have received a copy of the records of the court, snowing how the receiver was appointed, and declarations from the persons who were in charge of the lake regarding the presence there of Venezuelan soldiers.
Please accept, etc.,
Minister Bowen to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Caracas, Venezuela, August 20, 1904.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note, No. 1010, of to-day’s date, in which you answer my government’s request to withdraw the receiver from the asphalt lake and to return the property to its American owner by stating that the decision of those questions must be left to the court here.
I shall send the note to Washington by the next mail in order that it may receive there the consideration it deserves, and I shall take occasion to explain that the said court adjourned on or about the 15th instant for one month, because your excellency’s statement that the American company is defending its rights there to-day might be taken literally, which, of course, would be contrary to your intention and desire.
I gladly avail, etc.,
[Inclosure 6.]
I, Robert K. Wright, managing director of the New York and Bermudez Company, in Venezuela, respectfully appear before you and solemnly and sincerely protest against the Government of Venezuela, the federal court and court of cassation of Venezuela, the attorney-general of Venezuela and his assistants, the judge of first instance of the section in which the company’s property at Guanoco is situated, and against any and all other persons concerned:
- I.
- For the ex parte and summary proceedings of the court in declaring the Hamilton concession a lease and in directing sequestration of the company’s property at Guanoco, as appears at greater length in my previous protest made before you July 22, 1904.
- II.
- Against the forcible seizure of their property by the judge of first instance of the district, accompanied by military force. I attach hereto a copy of the protest made on the ground at the time by the superintendent of said company, Frederick R. Bartlett, whose request for a certified copy of same was refused by the judge, said refusal being contrary to the law of Venezuela, and I protest against the same.
- III.
- Against the unwarranted and illegal assumption of authority by the officials of Venezuela over the company’s property at Guanoco.
- IV.
- Against the presence on the property of the armed military force of Venezuela, and of the custodian, and of any and all other persons who are not there by permission of said company.
- V.
- Against the sale, or disposition, or removal of any asphalt or of any other property belonging to the company, and also against the use of the same.
- VI.
- Against any and all other acts of whatever nature or kind, whether embodied in this protest or not, which have been or which may be performed and which are or may be in any way prejudicial to the interests of the New York and Bermudez Company.
- VII.
- I demand that the property of the New York and Bermudez Company be returned to it at once and that said company be permitted to enjoy all the proprietary rights over this property that are accorded by the law of nations.
Messrs. Bartlett and Pinango to Mr. Wright.
Dear Sir: At 6.30 on the morning of the 28th of July last, the man-of-war Bolivar anchored at this port and immediately disembarked a military force and several judicial authorities. Both bodies at once proceeded to occupy the superintendent’s house and the workshops, offices, and other buildings of the company, and also that which is at La Brea, where the asphalt lake is situated, were likewise occupied by the military, who issued an absolute prohibition against anyone entering them or taking anything without the previous permission of the authority. From that day after 6 o’clock in the afternoon no one can pass and repass, and much less the employees of the Bermudez company, because there are sentinels on guard who forbid everyone to pass, as if we were in time of war.
We have taken no action on behalf of the rights of the New York and Bermudez Company, which we represent, as they roundly refused to accept our protests and disregarded every step we took for that purpose.
Everything has been overrun by the soldiers and thrown into confusion. Heed has been paid to nobody, as is proved by the manner in which they took possession of the office of the cashier without even permitting the salaries of the employees to that day to be paid nor what the laborers had earned.
The Bolivar left on the 30th of the said month of July for Guiria with the representative of the national revenue, leaving here the greater part of the forces it brought, and we were left here struggling with the judge of first instance who would accept nothing from us without the order of the representative of the national revenue. At last we succeeded in getting him to enter in the respective proceedings the protest, a simple copy of which I inclose in this letter, because we were refused a certified copy, and therefore it would not be strange if they ventured to abstract the folio on which it is found, signed by the judge, his secretary, and Mr. Bartlett.
The day before yesterday the Bolivar returned, and on the representative of the national revenue being informed of the protest which the judge had accepted from us he manifested great displeasure and opined with the judge that we should not be given the certified copy referred to, which we were requesting, because, as he said, the judge could accede to nothing, according to article 205 of the code of civil procedure.
We are living in private houses because from the said day, the 28th, notice was given us to disoccupy the company’s house and we had immediately to seek refuge elsewhere.
We have acted with great—too great—prudence, for although the proceedings employed have exceeded the limits of the law, we have offered no resistance whatsoever.
The judge and the representative of the national revenue are still making the inventory and they will probably finish to-morrow, for they are not making it with much detail.
Since yesterday they have been busy building a house of palm leaves to serve as quarters for a guard.
We send you this report so that you should be aware of what has taken place, and in execution of our duty.
A waiting your orders, we are your obedient servants,
- F. R. Bartlett.
- J. M. Pinango.
P. S.—If you think it necessary for me to go to that capital, please advise me accordingly via Trinidad or by telegraph via Maturin.
Note.—Translation of original in my possession. F. R. Bartlett is the superintendent of the company’s plant and operations at Guanoco.
[Page 942]F. M. Pinango is a Venezuelan attorney at law and is in the employ of the company, holding its power of attorney for all legal matters concerning the old state of Sucre, now part of the state of Bermudez, and in which the company’s property at Guanoco is situated.
[Subinclosure 2.—Translation.]
During to-day’s sitting (August 1, 1904) the court discharging its duties in connection with the pursuance of the mandate of execution decreed by the federal and cassation courts, copied in the beginning of these documents: all with the end of taking an inventory of the liabilities of the New York and Bermudez Company, there appeared Mr. Frederick R. Bartlett, superintendent of the said company, and stated: “I come to amplify my previous statements thus: It is only out of respect for the law that I have permitted the judicial sequestration of the properties owned in this locality by the New York and Bermudez Company by virtue of titles legally obtained, the sequestration referred to having been carried out by the judge of 1st instance of this section, accompanied by military force. I furthermore state that I protest against such acts and proceedings, on behalf of the New York and Bermudez Company, I represent as superintendent; and I reserve to same said company all its rights in order that it may use them in the proper time and opportunity. I now ask the court to cause a copy of these my statements, also one of the mandate of execution, to be issued separately and delivered to me through the secretary’s office.”
- J. Fuentes, Judge.
- Frederick R. Bartlett, Superintendent.
- J. M. Ardilla, Secretary.