Mr. Bowen to Mr. Hay.
Caracas, September 7, 1902.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I have learned that Germany and Great Britain based their refusal to recognize the blockade decreed by the Venezuela Government as effective on the assertion that the naval force of Venezuela is not sufficiently strong to render it effective. France confined her protest to Carupano and Cumana, stating that French ships had entered those ports without let or hindrance. I decided that, as we have no special interests in the ports blockaded, and as they seemed to me likely to be occupied and abandoned from time to time by the revolutionists, it would be sufficient for me to simply remark to the minister for foreign affairs that we could not recognize as effective any blockade that we find to be ineffective.
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I have, etc.,