Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 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 Vehezuel& ■ .... . / .... ... ■ - ; 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 a notice that the United States will not permit the two Etiro..pean 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 States 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 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 bombardment of Puerto Cabello. Officials in Washington frankly admit that as-

fairs in Venezuela have assumed proportions 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 Charybdis united in a bombardment of Fort Solano and 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 fortifications, 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 commanders of the British and German war ships had its provocation in the seizure and pillaging the previous Wednesday of a British tramp steamship lying in the harbor of Puerto Cabello by a Venezuelan rabble, which subjected her captain and crew to arrest and other indignities. Forts Were Old-Fashioned. The entrance 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 as one enters the harbor, situated on a low sand spit, is the fortress which was bombarded by the German and British cruisers. It is an old-fashioned structure, which was rebuilt in the eighteenth century. Its sides are comparatively low and would offer poor resistance to modern shells. The Venezuelan governrnnt had no modern cannon there. The custom house at Puerto Cabello is situated on the right or mainland side of the channel. It is a long, two-story brick building and contains, besides executive offices, large warehouses. Steamers discharging at. Puerto Cabello tie up immediately in front of the custom house. The town itself is flat and stretches from the water front inland to the base of the hills, a distance of two or three miles. The outside harbor at Puerto Cabello is hardly more than a large bay, offering comparatively little protcc.ion to shipping. The inside harbor is secure and quite commodious. Criticise Own Envoys. 'Aie 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 German cruisers, said that he did not hesitate on meeting "Charge von Pilgrim-Baltazzi on board the 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 Zaracas and Valencia came into this city to-day. The entire Argentine, Cuban and Chilian colonies have offered their services to President Castro to defend Venezuela. Strange aa it may appear, a comparatively large number of Germans who live io the interior of the country have volunteered to bear arms in defense of this country against their fatherland. Blockade a Big Task. * A prolonged 1 blockade would be a gigantic undertaking. Venezuela has, with its many indentations and irregularities, a coast 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 a 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 declare the blockadejrotd. Patronise thosewboadverttoa.

WHITE HOUSE OF VENEZUELA.