The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

THROUGH ONE ADMINISTRATION 299
More than that, Germany and Great Britain declared a
blockade of the Venezuelan coast and began to lay plans for
landing an army and fighting a way across the mountains to
Caracas.
THE MONROE DOCTRINE INTERPRETED
This simply meant indefinite occupation of the soil of an
American republic by a European power, and President
Roosevelt refused to permit it. On the night of December
14th the ambassadors of Great Britain and Germany at Wash-
ington were handed memorandums to the following effect:
It must be understood that the United States could not give its consent to any
extension of the international right of peaceful blockade.
In other words, President Roosevelt informed the powers
of Plurope that they would not be permitted to make war upon
an American republic for the sake of collecting a debt.
That ended the Venezuelan affair. Great Britain and
Germany protested that they had no intention of infringing
upon the Monroe Doctrine. They withdrew their fleets and
settled with Venezuela by negotiation, United States Minister
Bowen, with the consent of President Roosevelt, acting as the
representative of the South American republic.
ALASKAN BOUNDARY ARBITRATED
The negotiation of the Alaskan boundary arbitration con-
vention was coincident with the settlement of the Venezuelan
affair. President Roosevelt, in negotiating with the British
ambassador, stated the limit of the concessions the United
States was willing to make. He would submit the controversy
to a tribunal of six men, three to be named by the United
States and three by Great Britain. The proposal was
accepted, and President Roosevelt named as the American
commissioners Elihu Root, Senator Lodge, and ex-Senator