CASTRO AND VENEZUELA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 144, 17 December 1908, Page 6

CASTRO AND VENEZUELA.

Thanks to the individuality of President Castro, the South American Republic of Venezuela occupies a much greater share of tho world's attention than it appears intrinsically to deserve. South American communities have the knack of raising Napoleonic men — possibly on account of the weakness of the Latin multitude ; and Castro is a worthy rival of Porfirio Diaz, the creator of modern Mexico. His theory of government is the simplest. Citizens exist for tho benefit of a State, and a State exists for the profit of the ruler. What the citizens own the State owns, and what the State owns the ruler is entitled to take. President Castro lias taken liberally. All the revenue of Venezuela has passed in the natural course through his hands, and he has helped himself in the transit. Ho is the only millionaire m Venezuela, — or, rather, the only Venezuelan millionaire ; for at the moment Castro is living, according to oiu cable messages, "in great style " at Berlin ; officially welcomed by the German Government, and doubtless a pleasing personago in the eyes of Kaiser Wilhelm. It seems that Venezuelan affairs are reaching a crisis. Castro's booty is safely invested in Europe, and possibly he will not return to his native land. His sun ia declining, and he baa long held open a way of escape. Apparently he has judged tho present time a good time to escape. He has embroiled Venezuela both with France and Holland ; and although the American Government does not appear to have taken up the quarrel of the United States and Venezuela Company, the sad history of that company and others has certainly caused some •American discontent. President Castro, as his admirers affirm, "'is made all of one piece." By that it is meant that he is a single-minded man, taking no account of anything that would embarrass the career of President Castro, unless in order to end tho embarrassment summarily. So he applied his simple theory of government to foreigners as well as to Venezuelans, as was manifestly fair. Various ambitious foreigners have come at divers times to make a profit out of Venezuela. Castro saw to it that, instead, Venezuela made a profit out of them. This was only natural, seeing that Venezuela's profit was Castro's profit. His brief way with agreements and similar baubles is distinctly Croimvellian. He is a man of action; and, as he is reported to have> said, with a remembrance of his early days among cattle, when a steer comesup to be slaughtered, what is there to do but slaughter it So he had no objection to letting foreign capital into. Venezuela,' but he had a decided objection to letting it get out. The history of the U.S. and Venezuela Company, of tho New York and Bermudas Asphalt Company, of the French Cablet Company, and of half-a-dozen similar concerns, follows the same economic path. These companies wished to develop the resources of Venezuela, and incidentally to earn dividends from their enterprise. Castro made them all welcome, signed all the concessions they required, permitted them to expend their capital, and then either confiscated their property on, any Venezuelan pretext, or else invented a new tax or a new regulation that effectually diove them out of business, leaving their assets behind them. The • quarrel with Holland is more'obscure, but refers to the same Castronic dogma ': "Everything for me and nothing for the other fellow." There is natural wonder that, seeing piracy on tho seas is pronibited, piracy on land should have survived so long. The aegis of government is one reason. What Castro does he does legally : there is no absolute burglary of the foreigner's gold ; but Castro's subservient Parliament acquires that gold by the sacred process of law. And, since a Stale is entitled to make what laws it chooses for the regulation of its internal affairs, and the independence of Venezuela is recognised, the aggrieved foreigner's obvious way of redress is to sue the Government — in which case Castro's subservient Courts gives any verdict demanded by the President, so that tho last case of the foreigner is

worse than the first. Another reason for international non-interference is the Venezuelan foreign debt of £6,000,000, which would be imperilled as a security if the Venezuelan Government became unstable. President Castro takes care that the interest due to foreign bondholders is paid with some regularity ; and, in the event of a revolution, there is no guarantee that the next .Government would do as much. Nevertheless, either France or Holland would probably have taken active measures against Castro before this, it it were not for the "Hands off !" doctrine of the United States, which has to be reckoned with by any nation contemplating aggressive warfare — for example, a landing of troops in Caracas, or a bombardment of that highly-civilised and ( ver^ agreeable city. The United States does not want trouble with Venezuela at present, yet is determined to maintain the principle of its general attitude as protector of independent South America — particularly of those States which, like Venezuela, lie handy to the Panama Cf.nal. The new and ingenious way which the Dutch have adopted to gain their rights — by lying in wait for Venezuelan Government vessels and haling them off to Curacoa as prizes, is probably the result of a compromise with President Koosevelt's Government. So it seems that a crisis approaches. A rebellion against Castro has broken out, and in his absence the Government may take the risk of deposing him. He was elected Constitutional President for six years in 1905, so that his term of office would not expire normally till 1911. Possibly, however, Castro, who is now forty-eight years old,, will deem the occasion a good one to make his formal bow of retirement ; and will console himself for his loss of dignity m the numerous ways that Europe opens to a comparatively young man with a stiong character and a million of money. In the alternative of Castro's return home, it is to be anticipated that Venezuela will presently find a shorter and sharper means of ending an intolerable situation.