Minister Bowen to the Secretary of State.
(Mr. Bowen says his note of the 30th may not be answered until the President returns February 4. He suggested that Venezuela should propose to submit to arbitration whether the cases are diplomatic in order to show that if suggestion was declined peaceable settlement is impossible, and to offer to Department an opportunity, if it is accepted, to deal a death blow to the pernicious Calvo doctrine, and to secure justice for all of the creditor nations and an equitable sum from the customs revenues. He asks if he may await the answer to his note before advising Venezuelan Government. The Department’s instructions to him contemplated arbitration simply of its own four cases. Asks if that declaration should be made if Venezuelan Government rejects his suggestion.)