VENEZUELA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 288, 29 August 1908, Page 5

VENEZUELA.

CASTRO'S QUARREL WITH FRANCE. A HUGE FINE. - CABLE COMPANY AND REBELS, (BY TgLEan'Apg=pßj;ss AssocuT;oN^CQP>;iiiG}!T,) (R?c, August 28, 9,15 p.n).) ' ■ Caracas, August 28, A Civil Court at Caracas has mulqtei\ the French Cable Company in the sum. of five million dollars damages 681,350)000), besides a further amount to he assessed hereafter for egmplicity iu tbq Venezuelan revolution against President Castro. This deeishm i§ ft repetition of that re= corded against the New ¥orU and Bermndezi Asphalt Company in August of last year, on g similar charge. CHARGE D'AFFAIRES EXPELLED, After the rupture of diplqmatio negotiation? between Franoe and Yonezuola 60iue two and a .half years ago, Erenoh interests in Yene', zuela were entrusted to the Legation of the United States. Now, howevor, that the United States in its turn has broken off diplomatic intercourse with Venezuela, it is thought that French interests will probably be looked aftor by Brazil, which is one of the few foreign fitates of any importance that is qn good terras with President Castro and his Government, The cause of the rupture - with France (says "The Times 1 ') was the dispossession of the Freneh Gable Company of its coast lines on the most flimsy of pretexts, The only answer given to the remonstrances of the French Government by President Castro was the ex= pulsion of the French Charge d'Affaires anil the closing pf the Venezuelan porfq to French ships. •