The ostensible reason for the aforementioned resolution of the Venezuelan ministry of finance is that above expressed, viz., "the alarm constantly raised by the refugees on the Colombian frontier," but this reason is specious and devoid of foundation. The real cause of this measure, which will doubtless cause amazement to the honorable minister of the United States is the deliberate purpose of making Colombian commerce tributary to the monopoly which, by concession of the Venezuelan Government, is exercised on the navigation from Maracaibo through the Catatumbo and Zulia to the port of Guayabo over the latter river-a monopoly which is enjoyed by the owners themselves of the railroad running from Encontrados, at the confluence of the Zulia with the Catatumbo, to the town of Uraca, in the State of Tachira. The commerce of the valleys of Cucuta being deprived of an egress via the Zulia from Port Villamizar to Encontrados, it was desired to compel it to seek the Urena route via Colon to Uraca, where the railroad terminates, to continue thence by this route to Encontrados, and then continue by the Catatumbo to Maracaibo, subjected throughout this long and expensive voyage to the exactions and caprice of those who are granted so unjustifiable a monopoly by the Venezuelan Government. The import trade must naturally follow the same route, beginning at Maracaibo until arriving at Uraca, after having used the steamers of the lake and the river as far as Encontrados, having transshipped there to the railroad to reach Uraca, and having crossed the Cordillera from this last point to Colon by a rough-metaled road, terminating the voyage over a road of the same kind at Urena, on the Venezuelan frontier, opposite the city of Cucuta.

On the map which shows the boundary between Colombia and Venezuela, according to the award pronounced by the King of Spain, there are seen clearly indicated the two routes: That from Cucuta to Puerto Villamizar, the Zulia, the Catatumbo, and Lake Maracaibo; and that from Urena, Colon, Uraca, Encontrados, and the Catatumbo to Maracaibo. The former is the convenient and the practical route for Colombian trade, is that indicated by nature, and that which Colombia has a right to use by preference, utilizing the rivers which arise in her territory and furnish her a safe and convenient outlet to the sea. The other is artificial, and neither lives nor exists, but under the protection of a monopoly obnoxious to every notion of equity and public convenience, and the trade of Colombia can not avail itself of it because it is denied the use, under idle pretexts, of the highway which is that of the rivers whose headwaters are on its own land.

The foregoing statement will suffice to appreciate the justice of Colombia's cause in her differences with the Government of Colombia touching the transit trade by way of Mara caibo. The undersigned, therefore, does not believe it necessary to dwell further on this point.

The traffic over the Orinoco and its tributaries is likewise closed at present to the commerce of Colombia.

Under the revenue regulations of Venezuela, the commerce of that river is free to the whole world on its great mouths; hence, deep-sea vessels ascend as far as Ciudad Bolivar, some 270 miles from the point where it disembogues into the Gulf of Paria. The distance up the Orinoco to its confluence with the Meta is the same. The latter river is highly important for the trade of Colombia, which lies within the region to the east of the eastern range of the Andes, for it is the easiest and most expeditious route for her import and export trade. In fact, if Colombia's trade in that region could be carried on without legal trammels over the Meta and the other Colombian affluents of the Orinoco, the products which are exported from there could descend the Orinoco in steamers as far as Trinidad, where they could be transshipped to the ocean steamers. But the Venezuelan laws and the monopolies which they have sanctioned do not allow Colombian import and export trade the benefits of this direct navigation. In the first place, for over twenty years there has been conceded a monopoly and privilege in the navigation of the lower Orinoco by using the canals or arms of the river called Macares and Pedernales, which are the only ones through which river vessels going to the Island of Trinidad or ascending the river from there can pass; consequently, even if navigation under the Colombian flag were permitted throughout the distance from the confluence of the Meta to the mouths of the Orinoco, this permission, in view of the monopoly above referred to, would in reality be limited to the reach from the mouth of the Meta to Ciudad Bolivar. In the second place, the navigation in this latter reach of the Orinoco, which is entirely Venezuelan, has been denied to Colombian commerce, under the pretext that Colombia did not have custom-houses established in that region to protect the Venezuelan treasury from possible frauds. This is an extremely flimsy pretext, for the commerce of Colombia continues being deprived of the right of navigation on this part of the Orinoco, even after the Colombian Government has established the customhouses whose absence furnished the Venezuelan Government an excuse for closing the Orinoco to the commerce of Colombia.

The Government of Colombia takes the liberty of submitting this memorandum to his excellency the minister of the United States, with the request that he kindly bring it to the knowledge of the honorable Secretary of State, in order that the United States may form a correct idea of the state of the relations between Colombia and Venezuela, and of the justification which each of these republics may have in the questions pending between them.

The boundary dispute which arose between the two peoples from the time they were organized as independent political entities having been settled by the King of Spain as legal arbiter, it appeared that from 1891, the year in which the royal arbiter gave his decision, all real cause of discord would disappear between them. Unfortunately, however, it did not so turn out. Ever since that award was pronounced, Venezuela's policy in regard to the transit trade of Colombia and the navigation of the common rivers has been characterized by a marked spirit of hostility toward Colombia, which the following two measures have confirmed in an unmistakable manner: That adopted by the ministry of finance on October 26, 1904, with the object of prohibiting the navigation of the Zulia River between Puerto Villamizar and Encontrados, and that which prohibits the traffic on the Orinoco from Ciudad Bolivar upward to the point where this river serves as a boundary line between Colombia and Venezuela.

Great interests, not only Colombian but American and European, have suffered irreparable injuries in consequence of these measures, of this policy of hostility to the commerce and industry of a neighboring country, which is denied the free and innocent use of the rivers which wash its soil, which have their origin in it, and which are the necessary route for its commerce with the outside world. Venezuela is to-day the only country on this hemisphere which does not recognize the free navigation of large rivers-the only one which in its laws and administrative practices preserves the trammels on commerce and navigation which have been definitely eliminated in Europe since 1815.

It was for the United States to cause the principle of free navigation to triumph in America, and Colombia trusts that the efficacious influence of its government will be exerted toward having this principle respected in quarters where it has not yet been recognized.

CLÍMACO CALDERÓN.

BOGOTA, May 23, 1905.

The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Russell.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, August 4, 1905.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your unnumbered dispatch dated Washington, the 25th ultimo. You report interviews with the minister for foreign affairs prior to your departure from Bogotá touching the strained relations between Colombia and Venezuela growing out of the closing of the Orinoco to Colombian commerce, and inclose a memorandum handed to you by the Colombian minister for foreign affairs bespeaking the good offices of the United States to urge upon Venezuela recognition of the principle of the free navigation of rivers.

The subject as presented in your dispatch and the accompanying papers has had attentive consideration. Should a favorable occasion present itself after your arrival at Caracas, you may express to the minister for foreign affairs in a friendly and unofficial way the great satisfaction with which the United States would view the adoption. and proclamation by Venezuela of the broad principle of the free navigation of rivers and fluvial arteries of communication common to neighboring countries, a principle which this government has advocated and in its relations with its neighbors maintained for upward of fifty years.

In your conversation with the minister for foreign affairs it should be made entirely plain that this government does not seek to intervene or mediate in any way in the relations between Venezuela and Colombia, but in touching upon this matter is merely interested in the universal triumph of a policy so beneficial to the commerce of the world at large. ALVEY A. ADEE.

I am, etc.,

No. 28.]

Minister Russell to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Caracas, Venezuela, November 12, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to inform you that Mr. José Ignacio Diaz Granados, confidential agent of Colombia, has arrived in Caracas. Mr. Granados's mission is to endeavor to reestablish diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela, and he brings with him the draft of a protocol establishing the frontier between the two countries. Mr. Granados brought to me a private letter from the Colombian minister for foreign affairs, asking me to use my friendly offices to aid in bringing about an understanding with Venezuela, and I think the moment is favorable for conferring with the Venezuelan Government in the line of the instructions to me in Washington of August 4 last. I am, etc.,

No. 22.]

WILLIAM W. RUSSELL.

The Secretary of State to Minister Russell.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 28, 1905.

SIR: I have to acknowldege the receipt of your No. 28, of the 12th instant, reporting the arrival of Mr. Diaz Granados, confidential agent of Colombia, who is to endeavor to reestablish diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Colombia, and who brings with him the draft of a protocol to establish the frontier between the two countries.

If Mr. Diaz Granados's powers include the adjustment of fluvial navigation questions, besides the settlement of the boundary, the occasion would appear, as you suggest, to be propitious for discreet compliance with the Department's instructions of August 4, 1905.

I am, etc.,

No. 33.]

ELIHU ROOT.

Minister Russell to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Caracas, Venezuela, December 10, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to advise you of the following important notices in to-day's edition of El Constitutional, the government

organ.

1. The signing of an act yesterday by which diplomatic relations are renewed between Colombia and Venezuela. The treaty is to be signed in Caracas by the special envoys of both countries.

I am, etc.,

* *

WILLIAM W. RUSSELL.

MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT CASTRO TO THE VENEZUELAN
CONGRESS.

No. 423.]

Chargé Hutchinson to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION,

Caracas, June 7, 1905.

* * *

SIR: I have the honor to report that I was present with the ladies and gentlemen of the diplomatic corps at the reading of the message to Congress by General Castro at 4 p. m. on the 1st instant. The message-copy and translation inclosed-contains several points of interest to the United States. * * *

I have, etc.,

NORMAN HUTCHINSON.

[Inclosure. Translation.]

Extracts from the message of General Cipriano Castro, Provisional President of Venezuela, to the National Congress of 1905.

In our foreign relations the Venezuelan Government has maintained the greatest harmony and good friendship with all the nations with which it has relations, to the extent to which the respective representatives have so desired.

Thus we see that our relations of friendship with Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Chile, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden and Norway, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Salvador, Mexico, the United States, etc., have been relatively cordial. In order to maintain these relations on so good a footing, the Venezuelan Government has not failed to accede to the desires of the respective representatives as far as justice, equity, and right are compatible with the dignity and honor of the nation.

On the other hand, the government has taken pains to fulfill the obligations which it has contracted, and, in accordance with these obligations, which are diplomatic compacts, the peremptory demands were first paid to the allies and afterwards, in conformity with the sentence of The Hague tribunal, recognized as arbitrator by all the claimant nations, 30 per cent of the customs receipts of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello were paid.

In this regard there will be no further grounds for change, for once the payment of the allies is completed the pacific claimants will continue to be paid honestly and fairly from the aforementioned 30 per cent, in conformity with the arbitral award.

Since it was clearly and positively stipulated in diplomatic compacts that the remaining debts of the Republic which did not come under the head of claims should be paid within a reasonable period, for which purpose the respective creditors were to reach an understanding with the Venezuelan Government by means of new agreements concerning the form of payment, the Venezuelan Government, being desirous of proceeding to make these agreements, sent Gen. José Antonio Velutini twice to Europe for this purpose, conferring on him the necessary authority to conclude the arrangements.

I have the satisfaction to announce to you that these agreements have already been concluded and signed by the contracting parties and that the agreement relating to the discount debt has been ratified by the German Government, and that it will also soon be ratified here. Our commissioner, General Velutini, is only awaiting the ratification by the English Government of the agreement concerning the debt or loan contracted with that nation some years ago in order to return.

This operation, which I consider as being definitely concluded with the German and English bondholders, is, in my opinion, of great magnitude and importance, for on it depend, in part, the credit, tranquillity, and good harmony of Venezuela with other nations.

The Venezuelan Government has, then, fulfilled and is fulfilling everything which its representative, Mr. Bowen, agreed upon by means of diplomatic protocols with all the nations with which Venezuela had matters pending settlement.

If, as I hope, the ratification to which I referred should take place before your session of this year is terminated, I shall at the proper time request admission to you in extraordinary session in order to relate to you in a special message the real extent and importance of the operation.

We have had a slight difference with the Government of the United States of North America from causes beyond our control and for which we are not in the least responsible,

1038

and our chancellery has discussed the matter in a luminous manner, which appears to have explained the truth of the facts to said government, judging from the measures which it has recently adopted in behalf of our good and cordial friendship.

These matters are that of the Bermudez, or Asphalt, Company and that of the Orinoco Company, already determined by the respective arbitrators, in conformity with the protocols concluded by the aforesaid Mr. Bowen, who demanded that it be taken into consideration by a new court of arbitration. To neither of these demands could the Government of Venezuela accede, since the sovereignty and independence of the Republic were involved, although the government has always made it a rule in its policy with all countries to preserve the greatest cordiality and good friendship.

Our official relations with the government of our sister nation, Colombia, have not yet been able to be resumed, as was our desire, in spite of the fact that the relations of friendship with the Chief Magistrate of that nation have remained unchanged.

The cause has not lain with the Venezuelan Government, as those who ought to know are well aware, viz, those who have had a part in so serious a matter.

Nevertheless, I cherish the hope that these official relations will soon be resumed, as is demanded by our common interests, our common glory, and the future of both nations, the whole matter being governed by a spirit of equitable reconciliation, in accordance with the facts in this case.

It is proper in this connection to mention the decisive, important, honest, frank, and impartial assistance which the arbitrator recognized by both parties, Mr. Francisco Herboso, minister of Chile in this city, has lent toward a successful continuation of the negotiations. So that, in venturing to hope, as I do, for a successful solution, I am influenced by the fundamental belief that intrigue can no longer place an obstacle in the way of so noble purpose.

CIPRIANO CASTRO.