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Show FRANCE SAYS CASTRO MUST APOLOGIZE; PLANS FOR A NAVAL DEMONSTRATION e. PARIS,? Oct. 17. The departure of the cruiser De Salx from Cherbourg yesterday for the island of Martinique. French West Indies, inaugurates the preparations for dealing with the Venezuelan Ven-ezuelan Question. with a strong hand if President Castro persists In his present pres-ent course. The De Sail will stop at Brest, where she will be joined by the cruisers Lavoisier and Chasseloup-Laubat. Chasseloup-Laubat. The three warships will proceed pro-ceed together to the French West Indies, In-dies, joining the cruisers Jurien Dc La Gravlere and Troude, now at Martinique. Mar-tinique. This will give the division j of the ships under Admiral ilevoe De La Peyrer. The rendezvous will be Fort De France, Martinique. These ships are probably precautionary, as the officials here are still hopeful that the President will make suitable amends. Therefore, no orders have been Issued concerning the nature of the ultimate naval action ac-tion against Venezuela, as these await the assemblage of the ships and the result re-sult of the diplomatic negotiations. There is no desire here to have the assemblage of the warships taken as a menace. On the contrary, the French authorities are deferring the announcement announce-ment of their final plans until President Presi-dent Castro's protracted Inaction shows he is not willing to make any amends. It is pointed out that President Castro's withdrawal of his offensive action towards to-wards M. Taigny, the French Charge d'Affaires, and the presentation of a suitable explanation would avert the necessity of France adopting stronger means of persuasion. . The duration of the voyage to Fort be France will be about two weeks. Therefore, time remains for President Castro to make explanations. It is understood un-derstood that the demonstration if finally fin-ally restored to will take the form of a blockade of Venezuelan ports. |