File No. 4832/68.
The Secretary of State to Special Commissioner Buchanan.
Washington, December 21, 1908.
Sir: You receive herewith your commission to represent the President with full power to confer with the Government of Venezuela in all matters relating to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Venezuela.
The cruiser North Carolina will await you at Hampton Roads on Tuesday morning, December 22, 1908, and will take you directly to La Guaira. At that port you will find the Dolphin, or other vessel of the United States, to which you can transfer your quarters, allowing the North Carolina to return immediately to Hampton Roads.
You will immediately put yourself into communication with Mr. Lorena, the minister of Brazil at Caracas, who, by the courtesy of his Government, is in charge of the interests of the United States in Venezuela, and, exhibiting to him your commission, you will request him to make such arrangements as shall be appropriate to bring about the conference for the purposes of which you are commissioned.
The immediate occasion for your appointment is the following dispatch received by the Government of the United States from the Brazilian minister at Caracas through the Brazilian Embassy at Washington:
Reaction initiated against Gen. Castro. Minister for foreign affairs saw me today; asked make it known (to) American Government wish (of) President Gomez to settle satisfactorily all international questions. Thinks convenient presence American warship La Guaira in prevision of events. He made similar communications to legations. Please transmit Rio.
Lorena.
Upon the receipt of this dispatch the Secretary of State replied to the Brazilian Ambassador requesting him to cable to the Brazilian minister in Caracas to say to the minister for foreign affairs that the United States would act promptly in the sense of his communication.
The international questions pending between the United States and Venezuela, and which we understand to be referred to in the communication of President Gomez, are shown in the printed volume handed to you herewith containing a copy of the message from the President to the Senate, dated March 31, 1908, and the documents transmitted to the Senate therewith, under the title of “Correspondence relating to wrongs done to American citizens by the Government of Venezuela,” [Page 610] being Senate Document No. 413, Sixtieth Congress, first session.
You will see by examining this document that there are five American claimants, as to whose claims, after a long and fruitless attempt to secure settlement through diplomatic channels, the United States made to the Government of Venezuela the following proposal:
As to each and every one of the aforesaid cases, in case you shall not receive a prompt and favorable reply from the Government of Venezuela, you will expressly and formally propose to the Government of Venezuela that the claims against that Government in respect thereof be submitted to arbitration before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague; or, if Venezeula shall prefer, before a tribunal of three jurists not members of The Hague Tribunal, to be selected in the usual manner.1
To this proposal the Government of President Castro made an unqualified refusal.
On the 13th of June, 1908, the American chargé at Caracas was instructed as follows:
Inform the Government of Venezuela that in view of the persistent refusal of the present Government of Venezuela to give redress for the governmental action by which substantially all American interests in that country have been destroyed or confiscated, or to submit the claims of American citizens for such redress to arbitration, and in view of the tone and character of the communications received from the Venezuelan Government, the Government of the United States is forced to the conclusion that the further presence in Caracas of diplomatic representatives of the United States subserves no useful purpose, and has determined to close its legation in that capital and to place its interests, property, and archives in Venezuela in the hands of the representative of Brazil, which country has kindly consented to take charge thereof.2
The communication from President Gomez to the Brazilian minister is understood by this Government to indicate a purpose of the new administration at Caracas to reverse the policy which was followed by President Castro, and which led to the instruction above quoted. If we are right in this understanding, the United States will welcome the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and a good understanding with the only American country between which and the United States there does not now exist the most cordial possible relations.
The purpose indicated by President Gomez will naturally involve an acceptance of the proposal of the United States for the arbitration of the pending claims and the disavowal of the discourtesies referred to in the instructions to the American chargé.
The latter may be in the most general terms and is not deemed to be of primary importance. Indeed, courteous expressions of respect and good will from the new administration might be deemed a sufficient reversal of the former tone to answer.
It is not deemed necessary that you should complete definitively the signing and submission to arbitration of the pending claims, but it will be sufficient if you receive from the Government of President Gomez an explicit statement committing Venezuela to the arbitration of those claims, referring to my communication to Mr. Russell of February 28, 1907, stating fully the character of the claims and appearing at page 559 of the printed volume above referred to.3
[Page 611]The arbitration may well be described as being an arbitration in conformity to the provisions for the arbitration of pecuniary claims between the United States and the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, and agreed upon by the Second International American Conference at Mexico, January 30, 1902, and which was continued by the convention signed at the third Pan-American conference in Rio in 1906.1 Although Venezuela was not a party to this convention, nevertheless the fairness and propriety of settling these questions by methods which have been accepted as fair and reasonable by such a great proportion of all the American Republics will be manifest to the Government of that country.
In referring to this convention care should be taken that the arbitrators are not precluded from awarding any relief which may be in accordance with justice, although that relief might consist of restoration of property and not be limited to pecuniary compensation.
The claim in behalf of Mr. Jauret is so exceedingly simple and involves so inconsiderable a sum, and is so entirely without answer, that it is probable that both Governments would conclude that settlement be made and which could probably be done for much less than the cost of arbitration. You should not, however, press this view unduly if the Government of Venezuela prefers the arbitration.
In the case of the Orinoco Steamship Co. there is a preliminary question which has been discussed between the two Governments as to whether a former decision by the arbitral tribunal in which Dr. Barge was umpire should be binding and conclusive, so as to preclude a further examination of the merits of the claims. The United States has deemed it quite plain that the decision referred to was of such a character that under the settled rules of international law, to which both the United States and Venezuela have conformed in the past, the decision should not be held to be binding and conclusive and that the claimants are now entitled to an examination of the merits. This view is powerfully supported by the precedent which arose under a decision of the Venezuelan commission of 1866. In that case awards amounting to very large amounts were made by the arbitral tribunal in favor of the United States and against Venezuela. The Venezuelan Government protested against the awards and claimed a reexamination of the merits, to which the United States eventually assented. Upon the subsequent examination awards were made which resulted in a saving of nearly a million and a half dollars, principal and interest, to Venezuela as compared with the findings of the first commission.
The Government of the United States does not, however, wish to press unduly upon the Government of Venezuela under the existing circumstances for an assent to this position, but is willing to submit to an arbitral tribunal, in the first instance, the question whether, under all the existing circumstances, the finding of the mixed commission of which Dr. Barge was umpire ought to be held binding and conclusive and as precluding a further examination, with the understanding that in case the tribunal shall find that the former decision ought to be held binding and conclusive it shall be so held and the [Page 612] matter ended; but if the tribunal shall find that the former decision ought not to be held binding and conclusive, then the reexamination of the merits shall proceed.
As to the three other claims, viz, the Orinoco Corporation, the United States & Venezuela Co., and the New York & Bermudez Co., the arbitration should be made as broad and comprehensive as possible, to the end that there may be a final and complete settlement and disposition of all the questions existing between these claimants and the Government of Venezuela.
In case your conference has the result contemplated in the foregoing instructions you will procure the result to be incorporated in the form of a protocol and will notify the United States representative. The minister of the United States to Venezuela will be directed to return to his post and the United States will be ready to receive the diplomatic representative of Venezuela.
I am, etc.,
- See also Foreign Relations, 1908, p. 804.↩
- See For. Rels., 1908, p. 820.↩
- See also For. Rels., 1908, p. 774.↩
- See For. Rels., 1906, p. 1565.↩