FORTIFYING LA GUAYRA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7628, 15 December 1902, Page 2

FORTIFYING LA GUAYRA.

VENEZUELANS ARMED WITH

MAUSERS.

NEW YORK, December 12

The Italian cruiser Carlo Albert and the American gunboat . Marietta have been ordered to La Guayra.

Women are filling sandbags to defend La Guayra. General Forrera, the Minister for War, has posted troops with 18 guns on the heights behind La Guayra.

Major-General Castro, the President's brother, is bringing 1,000 reinforcements.

All the Venezuelans are armed with Mausers. '

The remainder of the prisoners have been released.

Reuter's Agency reports that President Castro asked the American Minister at Venezuela to act as an arbitrator between Venezuela and England and Germany.

BERLIN, December 13.

German official circles affirm that if tho prizes were really • destroyed it was due to their unseaworthiness, or for military reasons. The fleets were originally ordered to seize the revenue cutters before the blockade.

LONDON, December 13

General Ferrera, Minister of Wai*, is entrenching his position on tho heights behind La Guayra. The Standard says that after President Castro's scornful treatment of the reasonable demands of tho Powers, arbitration cannot be substituted for a definite settlement. Received 14, 5.14 p.m.

LONDON, December 13.

Lord Lansdowne, Foreign Secretary, speaking at -the United Service Club dinner in London, and referring to the Venezuelan trcoiblo, said a little ebullition was not without its advantages. He was glad to sec the British and German sailors unitedly enforcing just demands.