Comments At Washington

Washington, April 25.- Corinto- which a London dispatch saya the British aro going to seize in order to collectthir claim against Nicaragua - is the best port of tho Central American stntes on tho Paciflu cuast. It is most important to Nicaragua, as it is tho terminus of tho line of the Central American raüroad. It is a very old place, and wasformorly called Raelejv Corinto is the hoaviest import point in Nicaragua. The imports there for 1M91-92 were {6,006,805, while all imports to other points did not exceed $500,000. It Is evident from this why the British chose Corinto for their strike. Almost one-half of the imports at Corinto are from Great Britain, and the British scizure of the custom house will result in their roceiving the customs dues from British mercbant sliips The tariff rates of Nicarngua are sueli that the f5.0OB815 of imports in 184)1 yielded il.Uöa 913 In cuscoms duties. Most of this was collected at Corinto. At this rate the receipts at Corinto woukl reach 5,0ü0 within thirty days, unlesa commerce was d verted to otber porta It is a significant faut that tho largest part of Nicaragua's foreign debt is represented by bond held in London and payable there in 1919. This lornign debe ag!regateá f3,105,227. The Lonüon hohlers have thua far received their interest on the bonds very promptly. If, however, Nicaragua is erippiod by the seizuro of her customs receipts it inay react by a failuro to meet the interest on the bonds held i.. London. The diplomatic representafives of the Centr.l and South American republics are very xnuch distuibed by tlns late feature of the case (the meeting of bond obligatious), for they f car that it opens a vista of endless trouble and aggression in the future. Their idea is that once Great Britain has boen permitted without iuterfereuce to colloct this special inóomnity she will avail herself of the exouse offered by the failure of Nicaragua to meet her interest pityments on foreign debt to assumo the task of collecting this forcibly in the sanie manner, notwithstanding the tact that the failure may be brought about by her own seizure of Ihe customs recuipts which were to be applied to the payment of this interest. Of course this would necessitate the occupatiou of Corinto after the original indemnity shall have been collected, which would only add to the ünancial distress of Nicaragua, and should she be unuble, as seeras likeiy, to meet this last demanil, ' the occupation may ba prolonged so definitely as to amount to a permanent occupation of the territory. This is the roasoning of tho South Americans and they flnd individual cause for apprehension in the face that almost all of these little republics uwe sums of money to European bondholders on account of interest or principal of national debts and they fear that for the flrsc tinw the principie may be laid down (tnd rnforced thaC a Kuropean government may assume tho coüection of debts owing tö its citizuns as individuals. This ooctrine, they assert, would bo particularly obnoxious if applied to some of the states of the American union which have defauked in their debts to foreign bondholders. The outcome of this Nicarasíuan incident is also feit by the samo diplomatists to bo full of signiflcauce to Venezuela, aud it is feared by them that having once driven in the wedge Great Britain can scarcely be eipected to refrain fr m pressing forward with very vigorous inoasures in the matter of the Venezuelan boundary disputa and at once cstabhshing herself as the mistress of tho Orinoco.