August 27.
Only nine years ago Cipriano Castro, now President of the Venezuelan Republic, was an obscure politician who sat in the Federal Senate for the remote Andine State of El Tachira, The outside world would probably never have heard of his existence, but for his refusal to pay his taxes, and the seizure of his cattle to make good his default. Castro considered it an opportune moment to hoist the standard of rebellion, and, with a mere handful of followers, he marched on Caracas. Fortune favoured him, for President Andrade's 6,000 troops deserted to his side, and after a brief campaign Castro found himself master of the situation. President Andrade fled; President Castro assumed the reins of government. The new President soon embroiled himself with all the great Powers, and when their disputes were referred to arbitration at The Hague, claims were put forward by Great Britain, the "United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, and Sweden. With so formidable a list of foreign suitors it is scarcely surprising that arbitration by no means disposed of for grievances, and at the present day probably Germany alone of the leading nations has no dispute with Venezuela. France, the United States and Holland have broken off diplomatic relations with President Castro's Government, and when the 'American Legation was withdrawn, United States interests had to be: placed in the hands of Brazil as one of the few nations that was' still amicably disposed towards Venezuela. All these raptores President Castro claims to be his own handiwork, and in a recent interview with a special correspondent of the " Matin" he announced that he was proud of his work. He declared that in Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, and Ecuador the whole of the economic life of the country was in the hands of foreigners, and that it was his aspiration to regenerate the Northern Republics of South America, and unite them in joint defence against "the barbarians of Europe and the other America."
President Castro's attitude would be regarded as ludicrous even on the comic opera stage, but he has yet to learn that in serious politics! 'a ruler who defies the whole world, violates the plainest international obligations, and treats all remonstrances from foreign Powers with studied insolence, only evades the day of reckoning for so long as the aggrieved nations are hesitating which shall make the first move. By the irony of fate Holland, in whose capital the arbitration referred to above took place, has been the first nation to be tried beyond endurance. For some time past there has been much friction between the two Governments, but matters came to a head when Mr. de Rous, the Dutch Minister, was expelled from Caracas on the ground that a letter written by him on April 9 showed that he was incompetent to serve as a friendly medium between President Castro and the Netherlands. The contents of this letter are still a matter of conjecture, but from a recent' telegraphic dispatch it appears that the epistle in question was addressed to the magazine of the Dutch Commercial School at Amsterdam, and advised young Dutchmen who were seeking their fortunes abroad not to go to Venezuela during the regime of the present Dictator. Other Veneznolan grievances were the closing of Curagoa to Venezuelan ports on account of plague at La Guaira and Cargeas, und laxity of supervision over Dutch vessels in which, it is alleged, revolutionaries frequently made their escape. Mr. ign de Rous left Caracas on the Dutch raiser Gelderland, which at once returned to Venezuelan waters to protect Netherlands interests. Then further trouble arose from the refusal of the La Guaira authorities to hand over the Gelderland's mail.
The cart dismissal of a Minister of a foreign Power upon such flimsy pretexts naturally aroused intense indignation in Holland and the Datch Colonies. At (uragoa an attempt was made to storm the Venezuelan Consulate, and the riot was not quelled until it was announced that the Consul had booked his passage. Holland is now preparing to take more energetic steps to vindicate the insult to her national honour. There is already a small Dutch squadron in the Caribbean Sea, and orders have been issued for the battleships Jacob von Heemskerck (5,300 tons) Piet Hein and Evertsen (3,250 tons) and the cruisers Holland, Utrecht and Friesland (3,900 tons), sister-ships of the Gelderland, to proceed to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.