In concluding this despatch Lord Salisbury declared that her
Majesty’s Government “fully concur with the view which President
Monroe apparently entertained, that any disturbance of the existing
territorial distribution in that hemisphere by any fresh acquisitions
on the part of any European state would be a highly inexpedient change.
But they are not prepared to admit that the recognition of that
expediency is clothed with the sanction which belongs to a doctrine of
international law. They are not prepared to admit that the interests
of the United States are necessarily concerned in any frontier dispute
which may arise between any two of the states who possess dominions in
the Western Hemisphere; and still less can they accept the doctrine
that the United States are entitled to claim that the process of
arbitration shall be applied to any demand for the surrender of
territory which one of those states may make against another.”
The other despatch of Lord Salisbury, which accompanied the one upon
which I have commented, was mainly devoted to a statement of facts
and evidence on Great Britain’s side in the boundary controversy; and
in making such statement his Lordship in general terms designated the
territory to which her Majesty’s Government was entitled as being
embraced within the lines of the most extreme claim which she had at
any time presented. He added:
A portion of that claim, however, they have always been willing
to waive altogether; in regard to another portion they have
been and continue to be perfectly ready to submit the question
of their title to arbitration. As regards the rest, that which
lies within the so-called Schomburgk line, they do not consider
that the rights of Great Britain are open to question. Even
within that line they have on various occasions offered to
Venezuela considerable concessions as a matter of friendship
and conciliation and for the purpose of securing an amicable
settlement of the dispute. If, as time has gone on, the
concessions thus offered have been withdrawn, this has been the
necessary consequence of the gradual spread over the country of
British settlements, which Her Majesty’s Government cannot in
justice to the inhabitants offer to surrender to foreign rule.
In conclusion his Lordship asserts that his Government has
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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