VENEZUELA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 339, 28 October 1908, Page 7

VENEZUELA.

CASTRO TWISTING THE LION'S TAIL. HICH-HANDED ACT. SEIZURE OF A BRITISH SCHOONER. (US! TELEGIIAPH —rUESS ASSOCIATION—COI'XIIIQUT.) Caracas, October 26. Tho British sehoouor Lady Kensington, bound from the British island of Trinidad, was seized by Venezuelan officials while lying becalmed off the Venezuelan coast. Tho passengers and crow wero imprisoned. Apparently tho seizure was made in pursuance of a decrco of President Castro practically prohibiting trade between Venezuela and Trinidad. The British Minister at Caracas (Sir Vincent Corbett) is making inquiries regarding tho affair. HOLLAND TO BELL THE CAT. In July President Castro expelled Mynheer J. H. do Eeus (the Dutch Minister resident), Dr. Paul (the Minister for Foreign Affairs) sanding him his passports with a note informing him that in view of tho opinion expressed by Mynheer .do Eeus in a letter written on April 9 President Castro declared him to be incompetent to serve as a friendly medium between Venezuela and the Netherlands. Tho letter referred to was a reply to President Castro's demand that Holland should exercise a more effectual vigilance over Dutch vessels plying between La Guayra and Curacao, on which Venezuelan revolutionaries frequently effected their escape. Another cause for disapproval with Mynheer de Eeus was that he had published in a Dutch review a letter criticising the dictatorial regime of President Castro, and declaring that it was leading to Venezuela's decadenco. It is alleged that Venezuela has been searching Dutch ships and imprisoning their crews, much as in the case of the British schooner reported above. Tho Dutch armoured cruiser Gelderland (3069 tons, 20 knots) is already in the Caribbean Sea, and two similar cruisers, the Holland and the Utrecht, have been preparing for foreign service. A New York writer comments:—"Venezuela is penetrable only by cavalry—except at enormous cost—and even in the event of victory, there is nothing to seizo by way of indemnity, except the land itself—and the land, being American, is 'exempt from execution,' so long as the greater sister at the north . has men, gnns, and. dollars. In fact, however, the prosont grievances of tho United States herself against Castro are the gravest or any; for, because of the affirmative vote of the American arbiter at Paris, Castro has a more bitter grudge against Americans than even against Europeans, and his packed Supreme Court has therefore robbed American holders of property for which thoy have paid great sums. Even Mr. Roosevelt, however, has declined to undertake the necessary disciplinary work—as have also all other. Powers who have taken a good look at thesame task. "When the fuming Hollander Minister bade Castro' remember that he was the representative of the Low Countries, he retorted, 'And I am the representative of tho High Countries,' and unless rumour is false, gave the American Minister much the same' kind of an answer. This country, however, has put its pride in its pocket, and is waiting patiently, as aro some other great Powers, until somebody else shall 'boll the cat.' ' Why not let little Holland get the glory of doing this most necessary work?"

It remains to be .-eon whether Britain will deem the present affront sufficient to urge her to action, or whether, like the United States, she will make room lor Holland to puuisli the fractious President.