THE VENEZUELAN IMBROGLIO.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Stu,—The views expressed by the Spectator on the Anglo- German Alliance and the punitive action of the Allies on the Venezuelan littoral are highly appreciated by the English abroad, where, I venture to affirm without risk of contradic- tion, nine Englishmen out of ten are painfully alive, to the impasse into which Great Britain has been placed by an act of criminal carelessness on the part of his Majesty's advisers. In the editorial remarks appended to " Pro Patria's " letter in your last issue it is stated : " We shall not, we trust, lose in any way the goodwill of the American people. They thoroughly understand the situation and realise that we have been entrapped into an alliance." I fear this view of the state of feeling in America is somewhat rose-coloured, and I basis this fear on letters received by the last m ill from New Yorh and Washington, written by men of conaiderable political weight who entertain the most kindly feelings towards Greau, Britain. One of them observes that- " Notwithstanding the assurances given by Mr. Balfour and Lord Cranborne in support of the Monroe doctrine, the under- current of popular opinion throughout America, even among persons well disposed towards England, inclines to the belief that the Kaiser's action had but one object,—viz., to see to what lengths two great European Powers could go without arousing American suspicion."
The writer also says :-
" Where we blame Great Britain is that she rushed blindfold into this Alliance without even taking the ordinary precaution of satisfying herself as to the scope of Germany's claims against a bankrupt State convulsed by civil war."
He concludes thus :— "To us Americans it is inconceivable that you could in these circumstances go hand-in-hand with a Power whose Press and Government have openly demonstrated their illwill—to use no stronger expression—towards England, and the question which must cross our minds is : Did England also desire to test the vitality of the Monroe doctrine ? "
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