VENEZUELA AND AFTER 301 



Africa, from the Cape to Cairo, teemed with 

 disquieting problems with Kitchener just start 

 ing to redeem the Soudan, Italy on the verge 

 of disastrous war with Menelik of Abyssinia, 

 France and Germany, in the central and south 

 ern regions of the continent, watching the 

 promise of trouble between the British and their 

 Dutch and native neighbors. Intent on the 

 possibilities in all these directions, his Lordship 

 was probably much shocked to be confronted, 

 only a few weeks after taking office, with a 

 diplomatic communication that peremptorily 

 diverted his attention to affairs in America. 

 On August 7 Mr. Bayard, ambassador of the 

 United States, presented to Lord Salisbury the 

 celebrated note of Secretary of State Olney on 

 the matter of the Venezuelan boundary. 



The line separating British Guiana from 

 Venezuela had never been determined. Nego 

 tiations touching the subject had been carried 

 on by the Venezuelan and British Governments 

 at intervals since early in the nineteenth cen 

 tury, but for various reasons without conclusive 

 result. Beginning in the late seventies, Vene 

 zuela had pressed insistently for a submission 

 of the question to arbitration. At the same 

 time she had kept the Government of the 



