FIXING A FRONTIER

Evening Star, Issue 21450, 29 June 1933, Page 12

FIXING A FRONTIER

BRITAIN AND VENEZUELA A dispute which began when Surinam was exchanged with the Dutch for New York has just been amicably settled after more than 250 years ot continual rivalry in the dense jungles and high mountains of South America. This dispute was about the boundary between Venezuela and that part of old Surinam which was ceded to the British in 1814, after the French Revolution, and is now known as British Guiana (writes Janet MacGowan in the ‘New York Times’). By the settlement Great Britain formally relinquishes any possible claims to the rich goldfields which she had held were hers ever since the Dutch ceded the territory to her in 1814 and a slice of territory which has been officially hers since 1904. This is the third attempt at settlement. The first was in 1841, the second, which was supposed to be final, in 1904. The third attentpt, which has succeeded, was necessitated by a surveyor’s mistake in 1904. While the Dutch owned the country they claimed the whole watershed of the Essequibo River as their boundary, while Venezuela insisted that the old Spanish Province of Guyane—now Venezuelan Guiana—extended up to the river itself. When Great Britain took over her slice of the Guianas several abortive attempts were made to settle the question by negotiation with Venezuela. In 1886 the British decided not to allow any advances by Venezuela beyond the famous Schomburgk line. This was the boundary recommended by Sir Robert Schomburgk, who surveyed it in 1841. Shortly' after this Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain. THE CRISIS IN 1895. In 1895 things were brought to a crisis when Inspectors Barnes and Baker, of the British Guiana police, were arrested with a few subordinates by Venezuelan officials on the Cuyuni River on a charge of illegally exercising their functions as British officials on Venezuelan territory. The inspectors were subsequently released and they reported the occurrence to the British Government.

For a short time all was quiet on the boundary, but a revolution broke out in Venezuela, and after this was ended the dispute quickly began to take a serious turn. Venezuela appealed to the United States of America to take up her cause in vindication of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine. On December 18, 1895, President Cleveland sent a message to Congress intimating that any attempt on the fart of Great Britain to enforce its claim in the area in dispute, without recourse to arbitration, would be considered by the United States of America as a casus belli.

This message incited the Venezuelan people, and an anti-British campaign whs started in Caracas, the capital. A league was formed to induce merchants nob to deal in British-made goods, and patriotic associations were organised for the purpose of defending Venezuela against alleged British aggression. Without prejudice to her rightful claim to the territory held by their Dutch predecessors in title, Great Britain submitted the question to arbitration, which was agreed on between the two Governments by the Treaty of Paris in 1897.

The tribunal constituted by the treaty met in Paris on June 15, 1899. It consisted of two judges of the High Court of England,,two of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, with Profesor Do Martens as president. After hearing arguments by counsel on both sides they gave their decision in favour of a line which was but\a slightly modified Schomburgk line. Then came rebellion in Venezuela, the blockade of her ports by Great Britain and Germany, and The Hague settlement.

In 1904 Venezuelan and British representatives met to demarcate the boundary as ordered by the Paris tribunal. All was plain sailing till they came to Mount Roraima, a lone peak, B,oooft high, on the border, where British Guiana and Venezuela meet Brazil. A SURVEYOR’S ERROR. The summit of the peak had been decided .upon as the boundary mark, but, as often happens, a high mountain which looked a simple landmark on the map of Paris had so many peaks when the survey party arrived that they had to make an astronomical calculation to decide which was the right one. Finally, a point was decided upon, only to bo objected to years later by a clever surveyor witli modern instruments, who proclaimed that the 1904 representatives had put the summit in the wrong place. It had been placed in the south-west instead of the southeast. So a commission had to be appointed all over again, with a representative from Brazil, as well., to make sure none of her territory was included by acccident. It set out last year, and this time, to make quite sure, it erected,

after elaborate calculation, a pillar 6ft high on a concrete foundation. Now it is said the British Government has written to the Venezuelan Government proposing that the" post bo accepted as a boundary for all time, no matter what new latitudes or longitudes. are plotted by clever surveyors. To this, it is understood, the Venezuelan Government' has agreed, giving permission to British scientific expeditions to visit the boundary pillar at any time they wish, as the only way to get up to it is through Venezuelan territory. But military expeditions are most expressly barred.' . All that remains now is for the British Parliament and the Venezuelan Congress to ratify the agreement about the pillar, and two centuries of argument and a twentieth century mistake which caused a tripartite international, survey will pass into history.