File No. 711.31/101.
Speech of the President of the Chamber of Deputies at the opening of the ordinary session, April 19, 1912.
Among these official labors are most in evidence the sumptuous festivities of our Centenary of Independence, a solemn declaration to the world of the deep feeling common to the people and Government, neither of which fears but on the contrary both hoping much from the rapprochement with other countries and the most liberal interchange with all the nations of the world.
[Page 1364]The most expressive accentuation of this sentiment has been the cordial reception extended to that illustrious statesman, Mr. Knox, Secretary of State of the great northern sister Republic. He must have felt, in the very home of Venezuela, in the midst of the freest hospitality, that the idea of nationality lives and thrives in the soul of the nation.