File No. 731.51/34.
The American Minister to Venezuela to the Secretary of State.
Caracas , August 5, 1912 .
Sir: I have the honor to report that on receipt of the Department’s No. 14 of July 3 last I had a further conference with Dr. J. L. Andara, Minister for Foreign Affairs ad interim, and explained to him the position of the French Government as set out in the memorandum enclosed in this despatch [sic].1 Dr. Andara discussed the matter very freely and stated that it seemed that the only difference [Page 531] between the Venezuelan and the French Governments was that the Venezuelan Government insisted that the French claims be submitted to Venezuelan courts before arbitration, arbitration to follow if the findings of the local courts were not satisfactory in the opinion of the French Government; and that as he understood it the French Government insisted that there be arbitration without submission to the local courts.
Dr. Andara went on to express the belief that having once taken this position Venezuela could not with dignity recede from it, because to do so would be to admit the incompetency of its own courts. He then expressed the hope, as coming from President Gómez, that the matter could be arranged, and the belief that the friendly assistance of the United States Government would secure an arrangement along the lines desired by Venezuela. He also expressed the hope that I could so submit the matter to the Department as to secure this assistance. In reply I promised Dr. Andara to report the whole matter to my Government.
I have [etc.]
- Meaning the instruction above mentioned.↩