In 1949, the US jurist Otto Schoenrich gave the Venezuelan government a memorandum, reportedly written by Mallet-Prevost, which was written in 1944 to be published only after his death. Mallet-Prevost surmised from the private behavior of the judges that there had been a political deal between Russia and Britain, and said that the Russian chair of the panel,
Friedrich Martens, had visited Britain with the two British arbitrators in the summer of 1899, and subsequently had offered the two American judges a choice between accepting a unanimous award along the lines ultimately agreed, or a 3 to 2 majority opinion even more favourable to the British. The alternative would have followed the Schomburgk Line entirely, and given the mouth of the Orinoco to the British. Mallet-Prevost said that the American judges and Venezuelan counsel were disgusted at the situation and considered the 3 to 2 option with a strongly worded minority opinion, but ultimately went along with Martens to avoid depriving Venezuela of even more territory. The memorandum was published after the death of all participating members of the arbitration tribunal. The claim is not substantiated in the correspondence, writings, or personal papers of
Melville Fuller,
David Brewer,
Richard Henn Collins,
Charles Russell or
Friedrich Martens, the arbitrators tasked with issuing the
1899 Paris Arbitral Award. == See also ==