Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1902 — ALLIES ARE WARNED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALLIES ARE WARNED.

UNCLE SAM CAUTIONS GERMANY AND BRITAIN. Official Note Sent to the Two European Powers Advising Them that This Country Has an Eye on Their Doings in Venezuela. Notice has been served by the United States on Great Britain and Germany that it “must not be understood as giving Its consent to any extension of the international right of a peaceful blockade.” This, in effect, is u notice that the United States will not permit the two European nations to take any action looking to war on Venezuela. In fact, a Washington dispatch says, it may be a precursor of interference by the United Stutes to prevent actual hostilities. The right of all nations to collect their debts is recognized by all governments, but the United States does not assent to the proposition that so far as this continent is concerned European nations can proceed to actual hostilities without notice. In other words, this government will not stand by and see Germany and Great Britain punish Venezuela for the nonpayment of its debts, especially when assurances were repeatedly given that the only means resorted to would be a “peaceful blockade.” This government will not consent to those two nations going beyond the limits of a peaceful blockade in collecting its claim. In official circles an extremely bad effect was produced by the sinking of the Venezuelan fleet by Great Britain and Germany. An extremely serious situation is now presented by the joint bom-

bardnient of Puerto Cabello. Officials In Washington frankly admit that as- 1 fairs in Venezuela have assumed propor- I tions beyond what the United States had ■

expected or had been led to expect by Germany and Great Britain. Castro’s Forts Destroyed. For three-quarters of an hour Saturday evening the German cruiser Vineta and the British cruiser Charyhdis united lu a bombardment of Fort Solano Hnd the Castle Libertador, the chief harbor defense of Puerto Cabello. After reducing the forts to ruin, dismantling the shore batteries, wounding two Venezuelan soldiers, and making a prisoner of their commanding officer, the allies took possession of the castle, and then, leaving the dismantled fortitieations, the war ships put back to La Guayra. The Venezuelan garrison made only a feeble resistance to the superior power of the cruisers’ big guns. This summary action by the cotnmnnders of the British and German war ships hnd its provocation in the seizure and pillaging the previous Wednesday of a British tramp steamship lying in the harbor of Puerto Cabello by a rabble, which subjected her captain and crew to arrest and other indignities. Forts Were Old-Fashioned. The entrnnee to the inside harbor at Puerto Cabello is through a narrow channel not more than a few hundred feet wide. To the left of the channel ns one enters the harbor, situated on a low sand spit, is the fortress which wns bombarded by the Geriunn and British cruisers. It is on old-fashioned structure, which was rebuilt iti the eighteenth century. Its sides are comparatively low and would offer poor resistance to modern shells. The Venezuelan govermnnt had no modern cannon there. The custom house at Puerto Cabello Is situated oil the right or mainland side of the channel. It is n long, two-story brick building and contains, Leahies executive offices, large warehouses. Steamers discharging at Puerto Caliello tie up immediately iu front of the custom house. The town itself is flat and stretches from the water front inland to the base of the hills, u distance of two or three miles. The outside harbor at Puerto Cabello is hardly more than a large bay, offering comparatively little protection to shipping. The inside harbor is secure and quite commodious. The geographical conformation of the country causes a fenr that unless Castro’s people rise and overthrow him, substituting an administration which is willing to treat with the blockading tamers, the settlement of the difficulty will be indefinitely postponed. Blockade a Big Taak. A prolonged blockade .would be a glgnntlc undertaking. Venezuela has, with Its many indentations and irregularities. a const line of nearly 1,500 miles. To guard this, effectively by steam launches, as the Joint fleet has proposed, would require a monstrous mosquito fleet. Even with such n fleet, enterprising blockade runners would speedily find loopholes, and by repeated successes would, under the rules of war, force the United States and other neutral powers to declars the blockade void. .

Venezuela’s vital statistics give these figures: Area. 593,943 square miles; population, 2,000,<JO0; yearly imports, mostly from Britain, $8,457,977; exports, mostly to Britain, $17,902,257; total debt, $38,000,000, mostly due to British and German investors; total yearly revenue, $0,500,000; total yearly expenditures, $9,000,000, showing a steady annual deficit of $2.500,001). It is to be seen that a blockade actually destroying Venezuela's commerce cannot help the Anglo-German investors in the long run. The duties collected on $8,500,000 of imports will certainly not pay the arrears of interest, to say nothing of the large cost of blockading. There is much point in the London Post’s remark that it is not worth Germany’s and Great Britain's while “to spend millions in coercing a country which cannot be annexed and is likely to prove bankrupt.” Criticise Own Envovs. The conduct of the British and German commanders is severely censured by all the European colonies in Venezuela. Alfred Blohm. the banker, who went

to La Guayra and saw the commanders of the British and Gorman cruisers, said that he did not hesitate on meeting Charge von l’ilgrim-Baltazzi on board tiie German cruiser Vineta to tell him that the conduct of the German legation in this question had been shameful, and that the matter could have been arranged if Herr von Pilgrim had only seen President Castro, who, like the German colony, was ignorant of Germany’s designs. The enlistment of Venezuelan soldiers continues. Two thousand men from the environs of Zarncas nnd Valencia came into this city to-day. The entire Argentine, Cuban and Chll inn colonics have offered their servicer, to President Castro to defend Venezuela. Strange ns it may appear, a compara-

tively large number of Germans who | live in the interior of the country have volunteered to hear arms In defense of this country against their fntherlnmL Brief News Items. A lew Russian orthodox church has been consecrated iu New York City. Congressman Cheater I. Long is to move from Medicine Lodge to Hutchinson, Knn. The street car men of Houston, Texas, went out on a strike to enforce a demand for $2 for nine hours’ work, O. B. Frederick of Ht. Joseph, a brukontan oti the Chicago Great Western, wns crushed to death at Conception, Mo. The Inndlng of the Pilgrim fathers was celebrated by the Society of Mayflower Desceudents in Wnsnington at ita third annual banquet. Augustus E. Lines of New Ilnven, Conn., has bequeathed SSO.(KX) to the Yale law school for the support of a professorship of testamentary law. James Colly was acquitted by a at Oakalooaa, Kan., at the charge of killing hia brother-in-law, Frank Himmona. The verdict wna a popular ona.

WHITE HOUSE OF VENEZUELA.

HARBOR OF PUERTO CABELLO, SHOWING U. S. CONSULATE.

CUSTOM HOUSE AT LA GUAYRA.