Population in 1895. Character of present British "settlement." There may have been a few more there in 1895 when this assertion was repeated; but it will be apparent, from the official census of the colony, that such popula tion as was to be found there in 1895, or such as exists there to-day, is in any event small, and that it consisted and consists of persons who, after repeated warnings from both the British and Venezuelan Governments, have gone into that region during the last dozen years. In order that the Tribunal may be further able to judge of the equities to which present occupants may be entitled under the treaty, it is advisable that it be informed as to the character of the present British "settlement" in the disputed territory. In this connection Mr. im Thurn may once more be quoted. Speaking of the class of people in the Barima region, he says: "Agriculture in the district, probably because of the superior attractions of the gold industry, still makes very slow progress." "Lastly, as concerns the gold industry, I think it right to put on record my sense of the growing necessity for better protection of the rights of persons and property at the gold fields. There is gathered together a large and varying body of men, the greater part of them taken from the most lawless and undisciplined classes of the colony; and there is not among them, nor within many days' journey of them, one single representative of the law.”* The following extract is taken from the annual report of E. P. Wood, Commissioner of the Department of Mines, dated July 23, 1895. "So far the scratching that has been is nothing. It proves nothing. There is not a shaft or a borehole' down to two hundred feet in the Country, so that actually speculators have not much to guide them. The reason for this is that there is no * British Guiana. Report of the Government agent of the North Western District of British Guiana for 1894–5. fol. Georgetown, Demerara, 1896, p. 1, mining population here, everything has to be taught.' The alluvial mining is rich, and although the work is not sys- The following is from Notes on British Guiana and its Gold Industry, dated January 8, 1895, prepared by Mr. H. I. Perkins, Government Surveyor: "There was no extensive mining done until 1884, which is the first year for which any record of Colonial gold has been obtained." "The high rate of wages offered (64 cents per day with food. and sleeping accommodations) induced the laboring population, chiefly black, to leave their homes in the Villages on the Coast to engage themselves to work in the bush for three or four months at a time." "The really good men are very few and the majority are habitual malingerers." t In the same publication (p. 11), Mr. Perkins thus describes the gold diggers' "habitations:" "The architecture of a bush-house is neither elaborate nor expensive; the corner posts and cross beams are usually of round * British Guiana. Administration Reports for 1894-5, fol. Georgetown, Demerara, 1896, p. 505. † Perkins (H. I.), Notes on British Ġuiana and its Gold Industry, fol. Georgetown, 1895, p. 7. Character of pres ent British "settlement." ent British "settlement." Character of pres- wood barked, and the rafters of round poles, also barked; on these is placed the roof, made of peculiar tough paper imported from the United States and called Neponsett,' or else palm leaves, which make a much cooler covering, are used; but, as leaves are not always to be obtained, paper is substituted.” In an anonymous work, of which the author is said to be Robert Tennant, published in London in 1895, and entitled British Guiana and its Resources, the author say: "There are, it is estimated, upwards of 200 placers now in actual work, the returns from which vary from a few oz. to 1,000 oz. gold per month, or an average of about 50 oz. each; the aggregate capital invested in these workings does not, it is stated, amount to more than the value of a year's production.” * Mr. Rodway in 1892 wrote: "In the upper Demerara [which is not within the disputed territory] quartz-mining is being commenced, but elsewhere only placer-washing is at present (1892) carried on." † Mr. Perkins in 1894 wrote: 66 During the year 1891 about 20,000 laborers were registered for the several districts, these serving on an average for about three months each, so that there were always four or five thousand diggerr in the bush." It seems unnecessary to comment upon these facts: they speak for themselves. + Handbook of British Guiana, Georgetown, 1893, p. 52. ‡ Perkins (H. I.) Notes on British Guiana, and its Gold Industry fol., Georgetown, January 8, 1895, p. 11. XV.-REGARDING SPANISH AND VENEZUELAN OCCUPATION DURING THE 19TH CENTURY. Reasons for having set forth ex The extent and character of British occupation dur ing the present century has been thus set forth because, tent of British occupation. according to the view of the question taken by the United States of Venezuela, the territorial rights of Great Britain can, in no case, exceed the limits which that occupation had reached fifty years ago. This statement is not intended as an admission that Great Britain has a right to any territory west of the Essequibo, even though she may have been in unchallenged possession of it fifty years ago-a fact which Venezuela denies it is merely intended to make clear from the start, that the limits of the Essequibo colony have depended upon the question of actual possession; and that all territory not lawfully occupied by the Dutch, or by their successors the British, belonged to Spain and belongs now to Venezuela, as a matter of course, and quite independently of whether, during the 18th and 19th centuries, such territory was or was not occupied by, or whether it was or was not under the exclusive political control of Spain or Venezuela. control strenghVenezuela's title. It may further be added, that the proof already, Proof of Spain's though unnecessarily, adduced, showing the exclusive tens political control by Spain during the 18th century of the coast region and of the entire Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin, gives added strength, under the rules adopted by the present treaty, to Venezuela's title to the entire region; and that that title having been once proven, it is unnecessary, in the absence of any evidence of British title to the same territory, and until such evidence shall prove continued Unnecessary to be forthcoming, to present proof of continued possession possession by or control by Venezuela of that region.* As a matter Venezuela. Burden of proof on Great British. Pilot station at Barima, 1802. of fact, Spain, first, and then Venezuela, did continue in exclusive possession and control of the disputed ter ritory until 1850, when under an agreement (hereafter to be more fully explained) with Great Britain, Venezuela withdrew for a time. For the present, however, for the reasons above set forth, Venezuela considers that she is not called upon to support this allegation by proof. The burden is upon Great Britain to establish how far encroachments upon territory, originally Spanish, can, under the stipulation of the Treaty of Munster and under the rules adopted by the present treaty, confer title upon herself. In the meantime, and until such proof shall be forthcoming, Venezuela considers it unnecessary to set forth at length the history of Spanish and Venezuelan occupation and control during the present century. While relying upon the correctness of the principle thus stated, Venezuela considers that there are two facts, whose importance and significance must excuse their present mention. The first of these is that, according to the testimony of Major McCreagh, an English officer, the Spaniards, already as early as 1802, were maintaining a regular pilot station at the Barima mouth of the Orinoco.† This station has continued to be maintained from or before that time to the present day; and its existence has been repeatedly recognized by the British Government. I *As a matter of fact the Appendices hereto do contain proof of this fact, but the documents which attest it have, in the main, been submitted with a view rather to show the restricted limits of British occupation than the extent or exclusiveness of Spanish and Venezuelan settlement and control. Appendix to Case, iii, 57. Appendix to Case, iii, 189-192. |