DEAD DOG ON DOORSTEP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

DEAD DOG ON DOORSTEP.

DIPLOMAT IN HOT WATER.

QUARREL IN VENEZUELA

Owing to a quarrel with the authorities over the poisoning of his dog, Mr. W. E. O'Reilly, the British Minister to Venezuela, is returning to England soon, said the Daily Telegraph on March 12. The Venezuelan Government has declared him persona non grata. In 1926 the Venezuelan health authorities, alarmed at the large canine population, and fearing an outbreak of rabies, ordered all dogs found without muzzles to bo poisoned. Mr. O'Reilly, who owned a fine Airedale terrier, urged without avail that it would be much more humane to impound stray dogs for a certain period and then asphyxiate them if they were unclaimed.

When he found his own dog poisoned in the streets of Caracas on December 23 last, Mr. O'Reilly was highly indignant. Though the dog had no muzzle it wore a collar plainly stating who was its owner. It is alleged by the Venezuelan authorities that Mr. O'Reilly carried the body of his pet to the doorstep of the Director of Health and deposited it there with his visiting card, on which was written, " Hero is your work." W T hen he met the Director of Health he is 'stated to have added that " this system of poisoning dogs was unworthy of a civilised country." Nothing further was heard of the incident in Caracas until Mr. O'Reilly received a cablegram from the British Foreign Office informing him that the Venezuelan Government had requested that he bo recalled. The message added that the Government accused him of saying, " Venezuela is a country of savages."

It is understood that the Venezuelan officials cited the testimony of four witnesses against Mr. O'Reilly. But although he pointed out unofficially that the witnesses must have misinterpreted his words, no move was made at Caracas to clear up the matter. Mr. O'Reilly, who was educated at Harrow and Oxford, entered the Foreign Office in 1896, and has since had a distinguished and varied diplomatic career. He first acted as Charge d'Affairs at Caracas in 1904, and returned there as Minister in 1926.