File No. 3136/296.
American Legation,
Caracas
,
April 28,
1910
.
No. 544.]
[Inclosure—Translation.]
Message of the President of
Venezuela.
extracts.
The diplomatic relations between the United States and Venezuela,
based upon the greatest harmony, continue to draw closer the
multiple ties which unite the two nations.
As a result of negotiations between the President of the United
States and the minister for foreign affairs of Venezuela, the
benefit of the minimum American tariff has been granted to the
products of Venezuela imported into the United States, and I am
pleased to announce to you an arrangement so favorable to Venezuelan
agriculture and industry.
The Republic was officially represented at the celebrations which
took place last year in New York, and it will likewise assist at
various international meetings which will shortly be held in the
United States and to which it has been courteously invited.
There will be inaugurated in Washington in a few days the building
destined to be the office of the American Republics, to whose
construction the Republic has appropriately, contributed, and in
which will be displayed the Venezuelan flag and a marble bust of the
Liberator.
In accordance with the stipulations of article 12 of the protocol of
agreement between Venezuela and the United States of America,
concluded February 13, 1909,1 and approved by Congress in its sessions
of last year, the minister for foreign affairs signed with the
United States minister the respective protocols for the settlement
of the claims of the United States & Venezuela Co. and of the
Orinoco Corporation against the Republic. The minister for foreign
affairs will give you a detailed account of the said agreement,
which I consider beneficial to the Republic.
Thanks to this agreement, the arbitral tribunal of the Permanent
Court at The Hague organized by the protocol of February 13 will
have only the case of the Orinoco Steamship Co. to try.
The arbitrators appointed in conformity with the agreement met in the
second fortnight of February at The Hague and elected as third
arbitrator the Austrian jurist, Mr. Henry Lammasch. The cases of the
litigants were cited for presentation on February 1, and the counter
cases will be presented June 1 next. The arbitral tribunal will
convene on the 20th of the coming September.
