Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/644

 220 STATE PAPEES— VENEZUELA. [1899.

VENEZUELA ARBITRATION TREATY.

Whereas on the 2nd day of February, 1897, a treaty of arbitration was concluded between the United States of Venezuela and her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the terms following [here follows a copy of the treaty] ; and whereas the said treaty was duly ratified, and the ratification was duly exchanged in Washington on the 14th day of June, 1897, in conformity with the said treaty. And whereas since the date of the said treaty, and before the arbitration thereby contemplated had been entered upon, the said Right Honourable Baron Herschell departed this life. And whereas the Right Honourable Charles Baron Russell of Killowen, Lord Chief Justice of England, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, has, conformably to the terms of the said treaty, been duly nominated by the members of the Judicial Committee of her Majesty's Privy Council to act under the said treaty in the place and stead of the said late Baron Herschell. And whereas the said four arbitrators— namely, the said Right Honourable Lord Russell of Killowen, Sir Richard Henn Collins, the Honourable Melville Weston Fuller, and the Honourable David Josiah Brewer— have, con- formably to the terms of the said treaty, selected his Excellency Frederic de Martens, Privy Councillor, permanent member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Russia, LL.D. of the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, to be the fifth arbitrator. And whereas the said arbitrators have duly entered upon the said arbitration, and have duly heard and considered the oral and written arguments of the counsel representing respectively the United States of Venezuela and her Majesty the Queen, and have impartially and carefully examined the questions laid before them, and have investigated and ascertained the extent of the territories belonging to, or that might lawfully be claimed by, the United Netherlands or by the Kingdom of Spain respectively at the time of the acquisition by Great Britain of the colony of British Guiana.

Now we, the undersigned arbitrators, do hereby make and publish our decision, determination and award of, upon and concerning the questions submitted to us by the said treaty of arbitration, and do hereby, conformably to the said treaty of arbitration, finally decide, award and determine that the boundary line between the colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela is as follows : —

Starting from the coast at Point Playa, the line of boundary shall run in a straight line to the river Barima at its junction with the river Mum ma, and thence along the mid stream of the latter river to its source, and from that point to the junction of the river Haiowa with the Amakuru, and thence along the mid stream of the Amakuru to its source in the Imataka Ridge, and thence in a south-westerly direction along the highest ridge of the spur of the Imataka Mountains opposite to the source of the Barima, and thence along the summit of the main ridge of the Imataka Mountains in a south-easterly direction to the source of the Acarabisi, and thence along the mid stream of the Acarabisi to the Cuyuni, and thence along the northern bank of the river Cuyuni