Minister Bowen to
the Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Caracas, April 2,
1905.
No. 394.]Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith a
copy of the answer of the minister of foreign affairs to your note of
March 10 and a translation of the answer.
As my correspondence with the government in regard to arbitration ended
in an absolute refusal on the part of President Castro to favor any of
my suggestions, and was interpreted by him as evidence that I was
attempting to impair the good relations existing between the United
States and Venezuela, I decided to submit to him a copy of your note of
March 10, in order that he might have the opportunity to ponder
carefully your views and conclusions, and to answer them without being
influenced by any feeling of personal animosity, as he may have been
when he replied to my notes.
That he failed to avail himself of that opportunity is very apparent. The
whole tone of his answer to your note is exceptionally impetuous, while
the arguments he employs are distinctly disingenuous and obviously
absurd. * * *
I am, sir, with great respect, etc.,
[Page 1030]
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
The Minister of Foreign
Affairs to Minister Bowen.
Ministry of Foreign Relations of the United States of
Venezuela,
Caracas, March 23,
1905.
Mr. Minister: I limit myself to
acknowledging the receipt of your excellency’s note of the 19th
instant and of the inclosure of his excellency, Mr. John Hay, of the
10th, because I believe, with good foundation, that the Venezuelan
Government has in reality no pending questions with the Government
of the United States, it being an evident fact, supported by every
kind of evidence, that the Venezuelan Government arranged in
Washington, by its protocols signed in 1903, the subjects that could
be matters for discussion and that were decided by the mixed
commission that afterwards met in Caracas.
As, on the other hand, one of the matters which is treated by his
excellency Mr. Hay is found contained in those decisions, which is
the same as if we should say that it has already the potency of
things adjudicated, and because the Venezuelan Government would
consider it as an offense to the honor of the Dutch nation and of
the Dutch Umpire, Mr. Harry Barge, who decided the Olcott claim,
acquiescence could not be given to such an unseasonable request
without failing in the respect which is due to that which has been
agreed upon, and it would be at the same time even a reason for
believing that not even a new agreement, judgment, or arbitration
could be executed, so with the matter of the New York and Bermudez
Company, his excellency Mr. Hay ought to know that by its nature it
is one of the cases that belong to the ordinary courts of the
country, to which the laws now existing remit the case, and to which
are subject all those of foreign nationality who come to reside or
make contracts here.
The Provisional President of the Republic charges me, then, to say to
your excellency, in order that you may in turn communicate it to his
excellency Mr. John Hay that this government, in order to consider
his note, needs to know at once and for the aforesaid reasons
whether the matter in question relates to the sovereignty and
independence of this Republic that is to say, whether or not the
Government of the United States respects and reveres the legislation
of this Republic and the nobility of its tribunals, and whether it
respects and reveres equally the agreements and arbitral decision
which it, representing the Venezuelan Government, concluded.
I reiterate, etc.,
