A "LITTLE EBULLITION."

Evening Star, Issue 11661, 16 December 1902, Page 1

A "LITTLE EBULLITION."

Fok several reasons the ixenxarkable pohcr of President Castro -during-the last Aveek or ' two is not to be regretted. Itshonld rash tie future of that bountifnlly-mdowed but ■wretchedly-abused Republic to a more definite, saner ideal. If it does this the crisis will be ultimately a blessing both to the world and to Venezuela—especially to- the. latter. The people for years have been the ■ dupes and the victims of military dictators who have risen through a .course of rapine and slaughter to supreme power, from which, after a short period of plunder and cruelty, they have disappeared, to make room for equally worthless successors. Th® country has been ravaged and outraged in the interests of a. gang of cut-throat politicians as destitute of honor and ■ Christian ideals as a Neapolitan brigand or Bulgarian raidCT. Whether Matos or ° Andrade or Crespo, it is all one to the suffering people. Prom the isle of Trinidad a propagandk in the interests of. the aspiring ' candidate for the Presidency is set in motion. His chances having been considered by scheming statesmen aspirants finoffice, hunters for concessions, and adventurers generally, a few thousand pounds, a tramp steamer, and the landing of arms and munitions of war set the business going, and the worid is shortly informed that Venezuelans, or Colombians, or Nicaraguans, et hoc genus omne, are flying at each.other’s throats, like the proverbial cats of a certain spot in the Emerald Isle, “in the sacred names of liberty and justice.” “Opera bottffe revolutions ” they have been termed, and laughter would bo a fitting comment were it not for the bloodshed and fiendish atrocities that mark their course from Trinidad via Barcelona and La Guayra to Caracas. There is nothing heroic or admirable about the conqueror’s onward march and the of tlie defeated one. The Indians, who are to these Republics what the agricultural laborer or peasant is in civilised communities, are obliged to serve and forced to fight. The regular military are not one whit better than press gangs, and whether acting for the President in possession or the one who wants to oust him, they press into their respective ranks these harmless, inoffensive "volunteers.” Ten thousand of them, the British Consul at Colombia informed Mr R. H. Davis, had perished within two years, whilst their farms, homes, and cultivated fields had been devasted beyond redemption. Naturally, business and commerce, law and order, right and justice, personal safety and public respect are swept unto nothingness. Chaos and confusion reign' supreme. The , partisans of the opposing.faction ate thrown, into gaol, everyone hastens to get rich somehow, and the decencies of civilisation (never in these South and Central American “ Republics ” at a very high level) are- abandoned in favor of reckless blundering' and wholesale pillage. Thus it is that. President Castro, who, as a result of the battle of La Victoria in October last and the temporary disappearance of the wily, c.unning Matos, is Dictator pro tom.-, has come into direct conflict with the greatest naval and the greatest military Power in the world. British and German subjects and property have been insulted and destroyed, and the Governments of those countries are now demanding in the most emphatic manner that prompt reparation shall bo made. We think it will be. Ihesident Castro’s bounce and bluster, his insolent arrests and seiaiuvs. Ills arming and entrenching, can only have sprung from ignorance of the probable policy of the United States. That policy, as embodied in the doctrine associated with President Monroe’s name, was plainly declared by President Roosevelt -at Proctor, Vi i - moot, a few months since. It can be stated in half a dozen words—viz. : “This con“tinent must not be treated .is a subject; “ for political colonisation by any European “Power.” But it does not assert freedom from the consequences of their own actions upon the part of any semi-civilised Republic south of the United States frontier line. And inability to grasp this distinction, is, we assume, at the back of President Castro’s policy. His awakening, though rude, will be salutary; at least we hope so. Nor is the crisis without interest to the United States. Americans must recognise their responsibilities in this relation. They cannot permit, these Latin-American States to .stew in their own juice, as they have hitherto done. Their political absorption by the States is neither necessary nor would it be welcomed. But seventy million of free people, backed up with more than an ordinary share of this world’s wealth and brains, can at least be asked by Europe and (he rest of the world to act as policeman. Not, ot course, a policeman who merely stands at street corners and directs people when, and where to cross, but one who wiE tako in charge all guilty of breaches of the peace. We also hope that the scavenger and sanitary inspector will be sent along. One supreme blessing which has followed the advent of the Anglo-Saxon in all parte-of the worid it the introduction of the scrubbing-brush arid slop-pail. Aud if Castro’s assumption of the role of Bombastes Furioso for a day leads to no more than this, the worid will have cause for gratitude.