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1899.] The Venezuelan Arbitration. [235
the early days of October, within a week of the issue of the Boer ultimatum, an Arbitration Tribunal, sitting in Paris, composed of American and English judges with the eminent Eussian jurist, M. Martens, presiding, gave judgment unani- mously in the matter of the long-standmg territorial dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. That decision was sub- stantially in favour of this country, and authorised the inclusion within British Guiana of the great bulk of the territory embraced by what is known as the Schomburgk line. The only exception of any note to this sweep of the award lay in the fact that it assigned to Venezuela a small tract at Barima Point, on the delta of the prinoco, to which, on strategical grounds, the Venezuelans had always attached high value. From the British point of view, Venezuela being what she was, the non- acquisition of the tract in question could not be considered of importance. On more than one occasion British Governments had offered Venezuela, by way of settling the difficulty, more than the Paris award gave her. The settlement made by the Arbitration Tribunal leaves free for undisturbed development a territory believed to possess considerable mineral wealth and already administered for several years on British lines. The improvement in our relations with the United States, with which the Venezuelan question nearly brought us into collision in 1895, subsisted in the main through 1899, even although it was somewhat clouded by an indiscreet Ministerial utterance already referred to, and by misapprehension among many Americans of the issues really at stake in the Transvaal. A happy illustration of the warm sympathy of numerous citizens of the great kindred republic with this country in its South African trials was afforded by the generous gift of a perfectly equipped hospital ship, the Maine, for the benefit of our wounded. The Queen received at Windsor a number of American ladies representing the contributors to this noble offer- ing, and expressed her deep gratitude in happily chosen language. It has been said that very little attention was paid to any other subject than the war after its outbreak. Beference may, however, be made to the resolutions passed at the autumn meetings of the delegates of political parties, as afford- ing some, if not very decisive, indication of the currents of thought on home affairs. At the National Union of Con- servative and Constitutional Associations held at Dewsbury, on November 29, it was resolved, with only five or six dis- sentients, that "the question of a more equitable distribution of parliamentary representation, especially with regard to the existing overrepresentation of Ireland, demanded the early and serious attention of her Majesty's Government." The same meeting also unanimously agreed that every industrial centre should be provided with a well-found technical school to educate the local apprentices and artisans in the highest technique and practice of their handicrafts.
