50.7 millions and in 1925, 54.5 millions, were; earmarked in the budget. For the rellef of unployment 469 millions of francs had been exded between Oct. 29, 1919, and June 1, 1923. number unemployed reached a maximum of 6302 on Feb. 28, 1922; by May 1, 1924, it had clined to 23,195, and on Jan. 1, 1925, to 11,419. January, 1926, the number of unemployed was 525 which was reduced by Mar. 30 to 14,307. vernment aid was suppressed by Federal decree June 30, 1924. In 1924 the number of persons ployed in factories was 357,507 (337,398 in 23). In February, 1924, a referendum was taken on an mendment permitting the Federal Council to pro the working week from forty-eight hours to y-four In times of serious economic crisis. It was ected by a vote of 431,341 to 314,009. In 1922, 5,787 Swiss emigrated; in 1923, 8.008; In a referendum late in 1922 a proposal for a ines in 1925. The Government is a confederation of the twentye cantons, which are joined under a Federal Contution (that of May 29, 1874, being now in force), th large powers of local control retained by each nton. The national authority vests in a parliaent of two chambers, a "Standerat" or State uncil, and a "Nationalrat" or National Councile first of forty-four members, the second of 189 embers. There is universal suffrage, and in many ntons the people meet in popular assemblies to te directly under absolute democratic methods. vitzerland has maintained its unity since the men the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Lower nterwald formed a defensive league in 1291, and came formally independent of the Holy Roman npire in 1648. There is complete freedom of worship. In 1920 ere were 2,218,589 Protestants, 1,586,826 Roman atholics, and 20,955 Jews. Protestants are in majority in twelve of the cantons, and Catholics ten. Instruction is obligatory, about 600,000 pupils ing taught in the lower schools, with many techal schools and seven universities with about 000 students. The percentage of illiteracy is low. A referendum in the interest of prohibition, ling for an extension of the state liquor monopoly d placing a big import duty on all foreign liquors, 8 rejected at the polls on June 3, 1923, by a vote 352,772 to 259,741. 1 constitutional amendment adopting the nciple of old age insurance was accepted by erendum, 406,063 to 192,209 on Dec. 6, 1925. The national defense depends on the National itia, with compulsory service. Fortifications end the St. Gothard Pass on the south and the one River valley. The army always has been cient and for many generations has been conatly in effective condition. witzerland was neutral in the great war and is ember of the League of Nations, of which Geneva he seat. The unit of the currency is the franc, its gold being 19.3 cents. Rate of exchange on Oct. 1. 6, was 19.33 cents. The budget deficit in 1921, 1922 and 1923 was 79, and 45 million franes, due largely to subhe total public debt on June 1, 1925, amounted 2,200,500,000 francs, exclusive of railway debt. ecent budgets in francs are: r. SYRIA. (French Mandate.) AREA, estimated, 60,000 square miles. POPULATION, census of 1923: Great Lebanon. 628,863; Aleppo, 604,000: Damascus, 594,000: Alouite, 261,000: Jebel Druse, 50,000: Bedouin nomads (estimated), 250,000. Total, 2,981,863. ADMINISTRATIVE CAPITAL, Beirut, population, 80,000. Chief cities, Damascus, population, estimated, 170,000; Aleppo, 140,000: Homs, 60,000; Hama, 35,000; Alexandretta, chief port French High Commissioner, Auguste Henri Ponsot, Oct. 4, 1926. Syria is a former province of Turkey lying south of Anatolia with Mesopotamia on the east, Transjordania and Palestine on the south and the Mediterranean on the west. It is about the size of the State of Georgia. It was made an independent the mandate given to France by the Supreme Council state by the Treaty of Sevres, Aug. 10, 1920, and of the Allied Powers. The French development of Syria provided for a federative state of three provinces, Aleppo (the district around Latakia), Damascus, and Alouite. Aleppo and Damascus were united in 1925 to form the single territory of Syria. Damad Ahmed Namy Bey, a Turk, was appointed President of Syria in April, 1925, to hold office until a regularly elected Parliament met. The council of Alouite that under the French mandate and an economic union year passed a resolution favoring independence with the rest of Syria. Great Lebanon was proclaimed a state Sept. 1, 1920, with Beirut as its capital and given a flag, the French tri-color with a cedar on the white ground. It was reorganized into the Lebanese Republic and in May, 1926, Its National Assembly elected Charles Debbas, an Arab, as first President. On Dec. 7, 1924, a new state, Alexandretta, was set off from Aleppo and Damascus. In March, 1926, the Representative Council, meeting as a Constituent Assembly, proclaimed the independence of the region as a separate state and voted a constitution. They asked the High Commissioner to appoint M. Durieux, his delegate there, President. An outbreak in Jebel Druse, a mountainous district about fifty-five miles southeast of Damascus, Aug. 5, 1925, gave the French serious trouble. The French Government recalled Gen. Sarrail, the High Commissioner, and on Nov. 6, 1925, appointed Henri de Jouvenel. His efforts at pacification were fruitless. The Druse Assembly meeting in Duma, in March, 1926, prepared a letter to the High Commissioner demanding the complete independence of Syria, admission to the League of Nations, the withdrawal of all French troops, and a general amnesty. The High Commissioner would accept nothing but unconditional surrender. Later M. de Jouvenel proposed terms of peace and promised amnesty if arms were laid down by June 14. The rebels presented counter terms, asking for $25,000,000 for damage done by artillery and aircraft, withdrawal of all French troops, expulsion of the Armenian and Caucasian mercenaries, who were charged with atrocities, and conclusion of a seven-year treaty with France. The Druses, under Sultan el Atrash, waged a guerrilla warfare with great bitterness, which brought fierce reprisals. Damascus, a wealthy city of 140,000, of venerable age in the time of the Apostles, had been first bombarded in October. 1925. It suffered great damage by a second bombardment by the French troops on May 6, 1926, and many civilians were killed. The reason given was that the Midan quarter had been occupied and fortified by rebels. The Oasis of Ghuta, covering 300 square miles and producing foodstuffs valued at $5,000,000 annually, was fought over for four weeks in July and August and badly damaged. Revenue. Expenditure. .256,850,000 294,670.000 .298,814,000 307,974,000 France had. on June 1, 1926, about 30,000 troops .297.850.000 299,480,000 In Syria, of which 20,000 were engaged in operations mports and exports in dollars for five years: against Sultan el Atrash. Premier Painleve anExports. nounced on Oct. 21, 1925, that since France had .$399.554.286 $310.193,593 assumed the mandate over Syrla her troops had 339,983,782 suffered 6.626 casualties, and her government had 339,719,495 expended over 2,000,000,000 francs. Imports. 369,491,745 432,723,814 483,362,324 508,392,694 rade with the United States was: -23. -24. --25. --26. 399,551,881 Exports. About 1.500.000 of the population are of the orthodox Mohammedan faith. The Important railroad lines are Beirut to Damascus, with connections at Royak to Homs, Homa Imports. and Aleppo and from Tripoli, a promising seaport, $5,036,388 $34,870,445 to Aleppo, where connection is made with the 8,279,127 37,183,389 Bagdad railroad. Beirut, the capital, is the seat 8,034,023 37,587,986 of the Syrian Protestant College (1,217 students) 8,767,689 41,256,833 founded by the Rev. Dr. Daniel Bliss in 1874, which shares with Robert College in Constantinople (opposite Constantinople), Brussa, Bigha, Smyres American educational honors in the Levant. Schools in 1923 numbered 461 public, with 30,145 pupils, and 990 subsidized private, with 75,242 pupils. The eastern part of the country is dry, being cut off from the sea-moisture-laden winds by mountains. Irrigation is essential to cultivation. Tobacco, wheat, fruft, wine and silk are the chief products. Mineral wealth is unimportant. Great Lebanon, which extends along the Mediterranean for 120 miles, with an average width of thirty miles, produced olives, wheat, grapes, oranges and mulberry trees, and also supports much livestock. Tobacco production in 1924 reached 2,602,800 pounds. The cultivable acreage of the country is estimated at about 12,500,000 acres but only one-fifth is under cultivation. The cotton production of 45,000 bales in 1924 was from 50,000 acres and by irrigation the acreage could be profitably increased to 2,000,000 acres. The yield of silk cocoons in 1924 was 6,118,000 pounds. The budget for 1924 showed revenues of 10,606,279 Syrlan pounds (=20 francs, about $4.00 at par), and expenditures of 7,458,155 Syrian pounds. Currency in circulation September, 1926. was 12,125,000 Syrian pounds. Trade for four years in dollars was: Years. Imports. Exports. $41,164,000 $9,020,000 33,550,000 14,640,000 41,704,000 17,796,000 46,404,000 21,953,000 Trade of Syria and Palestine with the United States was: Year. 1921-22.. 1923-24. 1924-25. Imports. Exports. $3,167,822 $752,940 2,536,716 2,600,017 3,696,460 3,471,508 1925 (July 1 to Dec. 31)...... 2,864,882 3,139,366 Trade of Syria alone from January, 1926, to June 30, 1926, was: Imports, $1,093,688; exports, $854,878. TURKEY, REPUBLIC OF AREA, approximately 282,627 square miles, but boundaries are indeterminate. In Europe. 8,819 square miles; in Asia, 273,808. POPULATION, approximately, 7,549,000. In Europe, 1,357,000; in Anatolia, 6,192,000. CAPITAL, Angora, in Anatolia, population, estimated 1924, 35,000. Chief city, Constantinople, population, by city census of 1925, 1,011,265, of which 682,811 are Turks, 181,188 Greeks, 60,831 Armenians, 57,532 Jews and 3,194 Bulgarians. Other cities: Smyrna, population estimated 1924, 98,846; Konla, 71.104; Brussa, 66,664; Adana, 61,110; Adrianople. 56,367; Caesarea, 49,567; Aintab, 47,930. Kastamani, Augora, Konia, Adana, Sivas and Trebizond, 199,272 square miles, with 10,186,900 of population; Armenia and Kurdistan, 71,900 square miles, with 2,000,000 of population: Meso potamnia, 143,250 square miles, with 2,000,000 st population: Syria, 114,530 square miles, with 3,675,100 of population; and the Hejaz and Yemen in Arabia, 170,300 square miles, with 1,050,000 of population; a total of 710,224 square miles, with 21,273,900 of population. In Asia, a part of Armenia has adopted a Soviet government and is at least in harmonious agreement with Soviet Russia. Syria has passed under the mandate of France (which see), Mesopotamia ha been created the dependent kingdom of the Iraq (which see); Palestine under the mandate of Grest Britain (which see); and Arabia (which see) has asserted its independence as the Kingdom of the Hejaz, Imamate of Yemen and other divisions. The Balkan wars of 1913 had reduced the Eropean area dominated by Turkey, leaving her only that part of Thrace from Adrianople east to the Black Sea and south to Enos on the Aegean; but it left her completely the mistress of the Straits of the Dardanelles. The Treaty of Sevres (Paris), following the World War, further diminished Turkish territory. giving all Thrace to Greece except a triangle thirty miles by forty, containing a neutral zone, along the immediate border of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora and the Bosphorus on both the European r and the Asiatic sides, to secure equal passage rights to all nations. All fortifications were to be de molished. The Straits were to remain open in peace and in war for all craft and to be neutral ins time of war. They were not to be subject to blockade or other hostile acts. A Commission of the Straits was named to have complete control of the navigation of the Straits but Constantinople was to return to Turkish administration. The Allied occupation of Constantinople became complete on March 16, 1920. The real power in the Turkish Empire was seized Ministry set up by the Nationalists at Angora, in by the Grand National Assembly, and a responsible Anatolia, which was the most genuinely Turkish section of the old Ottoman Empire after the last Chamber of Deputies, sitting at Constantinople, was dissolved April 11, 1920. The Assembly voted on Jan. 20, 1921, a Fundamental Law, which was in fact a new Constitution for Turkey. It declared that all sovereignty belonged to the people and that all power was vested in its representatives Grand National Assembly. It provided for unl versal suffrage without religious or race distinction and recognized the right of minorities to freedom and protection. It contained a programme of social reform. the The success of Mustapha Kemal Pasha, soldier and able diplomatist, who was chosen President of the Assembly and Commander-in-Chief, in driving out the Greeks in 1922 from Smyrna (formerly with a population of 225,000, now about 98,000) and its hinterland, establishing his army on the Straits, negotiating the Lausanne Treaty (not ratified up to Dec. 15, 1926, by the United States Congress) to replace the discarded Treaty of Sevres, will be found in the article on Turkey in The World Almanac of 1925. President and Commander-in-Chief, Mustapha Kemal Pasha, re-elected August, 1923. Premier, Gen. Ismet Pasha, Mar. 4, 1925. Governor of Constantinople, Emin Bey. Grand National Assembly at Angora has complete control. The Assembly on Nov. 2, 1922, declared itself invested with sovereign rights, that the Sultanate be abolished, that the present Sultan be deposed as Caliph (spiritual head of Islam), and that a suitable member of the house of Osman be appointed to that place. The Sultan, Mohammed VI., on Nov. 17 boarded the British Massachusetts, and the entire Turkish Republic Turkey in Europe is now slightly larger than battleship Malaya and was taken to Malta. is slightly larger than California and New Mexico He died at San Reno, May 16, 1926. On the combined. On the west the Bulgarian boundary 18th the National Assembly elected to the runs from the mouth of the Rezvaya River on the Caliphate the heir to the Sultanate, Abdul Black Sea to the Maritza River, fifteen miles northMedjid Effendi (born May 25, 1868), the cousin west of Adrianople; and the Greek boundary folof Sultan Mohammed VI. On March 2, 1924, the lows that river to Enos on the Aegean, except for Grand National Assembly deposed the Caliph the Town of Karagatch. On the east the Russtan (who fled to Switzerland) and declared the Call- boundary runs from just south of Batum to the phate vested in the Assembly. northwest corner of Persia. The Persian boundary Diplomatic and Consular Interests of Turkey in the continues from near Mount Ararat to the Iraq at United States are cared for by Spain. the Mosul line delimited in 1926 by treaty agree United States High Commissioner, at Constantinople, ment with Great Britain. (See Iraq.) The southern Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol, U. S. N. (Syrian) boundary runs from Payas on the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Iraq, and, with the Mosul line. seventy-two vilayets or provinces. runs practically due east and west. There are Up to the beginning of the World War Turkey, or the Ottoman Empire, included European Turkey. Anatolia, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Armenia and Kurdistan, also groups of islands in the Aegean Sea. So late as 1916, the areas of the Turkish Empire totalled about 710,224 square miles, with about 21.273,900 of population. Cyprus and Egypt had passed to British domination-Cyprus annexed, and Egypt under a protectorate. There remained, therefore, in the Turkish Empire, 10,882 square miles of area with 1,891,000 of population in and around Constantinople and Adrianople on the north of the Straits; in Asia Minor, including Ismid REPUBLIC WITH NEW CONSTITUTION. In October, 1925, a new Constitution was adopted proclaiming the Republic of Turkey with a President elected for four or five years. The National Assem powers only, the executive power being intrusted bly, composed of 283 Deputies, will have legislative to a Cabinet responsible to the Assembly. A Council of State, the members appointed by the President, will fulfil the functions usually cared for by a parliamentary Upper House. The basic revised Constitution had been adopted by the Assembly on April 20, 1924. It contained 1 uses designed to limit the citizenship of nonurks and non-Moslems, and limited the franchise males over eighteen. A strict prohibition law ssed in 1923 had so disastrous an effect on proction and brought such a loss of revenue that new law was passed on April 8, 1924, continuing e liquor traffic under heavy taxes and a measure Government control. New laws enacted in 1925 abolished polygamy, forced registration of marriages, and gave the wer to grant divorces to the President. This, emal Pasha promptly took advantage of by divorcg his wife, Latife Hanoum, twenty-two years old, advanced feminist. Turks generally have folwed his advice and adopted hats in place of the , held an emblem of the old regime, and the rban. The National Assembly in 1926 adopted three w codes of law; the civil code was taken from vitzerland, the criminal code from Italy, and e commercial code from Germany, all with but tle change. The codes are independent of relion, and the civil code replaces the various bodies laws and codes that had grown up based on the oran; it deals with the law of persons of the mily, of inheritance, and of property. olished both polygamy and slavery by tacit omism. As Turkey denounced the Capítulations on tering the war and as this act was incorporated the Lausanne Treaty, the adoption of these codes of the utmost importance. The Swiss civil code as chosen, said Mahmoud Essad, Minister of istice, because it was "the newest and most perct and democratic." Switzerland adopted it ter seven years of discussion, Dec. 10, 1917, and went into effect there Jan. 1, 1921. It The Gregorian Calendar was adopted, also the renty-four-hour clock. Civil marriages were ade obligatory after Sept. 1, 1926, though a relious ceremony may follow if desired. The legal arriage age under the new law is seventeen for omen and eighteen for men. Public declaration Intention must be made fifteen days before the remony. A mutual guarantee and neutrality treaty for three ars was signed by Turkey and Russia on Dec. ', 1925. On a charge of plotting to kill Mustapha Kemal asha, at Smyrna, on Aug. 18, 1926. forty-nine ders, the last and strongest remnant of the Comittee of Union and Progress, which freed Turkey om the despotic powers of the Sultan in 1908, ere put on trial Aug. 3 at Angora before the Inpendent Tribunal. Fifteen were condemned to -ath, thirteen of whom were hanged on the wateront at Smyrna on Aug. 26, seven were Kemal's lef opponents, Djavid Pasha, former Finance inister; Dr. Nazim Bey, former Minister of Educaon: Helmi Bey, former Deputy; Shukri Bey, a eputy: Jambolet Bey, former Minister of the terior; Gen. Rushdi, and Naul Bey, the party cretary. Abdul Kador Bey, former Governor of ngora, was hanged in Angora Aug. 31. Rauf ey, former Prime Minister, and Rahim Bey, mer Governor of Smyrna, were banished. Eight ceived prison sentences and twenty were acquitted. NATURAL RESOURCES. Agriculture is the chief industry of the Turks, oducts being tobacco, which goes to almost all orld marts; cereals, cotton, fige, nuts, fruits of most all varieties, opium and gums. There are ge forests Turkey has large mineral resources, not yet veloped, chrome ore, zinc, manganese, antimony, pper, borax, emery, asphalt, meerschaum, some af and lignite, salt, some gold and silver, and troleum on lands bordering the Marmora Sea. Turkish fisheries are regarded as important, but anufactures are small and methods crude. Turkey suffered severely during the twelve long ars of war. The destruction of Smyrna, devasLion of cultivated areas, lack of transportation, d the deportation of the skilled Christian workers pt the output of the country in 1923 far below ewar average. The Government has made efrts to assist the peasant and is undertaking the ilding of railroads, but in its efforts to build o a purely Turkish Moslem state many prohibitive ties and restrictive laws and regulations have en put into force. In the compulsive exchange population 1,000,000 Greeks and Armenians left e country, and by May, 1924, 300,000 Moslem fugees had been brought in. The majority of the Turkish refugees had some pital and were settled upon land vacated by the eeks. Reconstruction is proceeding, but slowly. 40,000 villages in January, 1926, there were ported 4,800 primary schools with 9,000 teachers id 302,500 pupils; 71 secondary schools, 56 for 800 boys, and 15 for 1,000 girls: 20 high schools | r 4,500 boys and 1,100 girls: 85 per cent. of the population is illiterate. The budget of the Ministry of Education was about $3,790,000 for 1925-26, and $3,600,000 for 1924-25. Railway mileage in 1925 was 1,859 miles, with 640 under construction. The unit of currency is the plaster (par of exchange 4.4 cents), of which 100 1 pound Turkish. Average exchange rates for the Turkish pound were: 1923, $0.6067: 1924, $0.529; 1925, $0.544. The budget 1924-25 provided for expenditures of £T140,433,370 ($73,868,953, converted at $0.5264 the average exchange rate for the first four months of 1924); and estimated revenues of £T129,214,610 ($67,966,885). The deficit for 1923-24 was about £T12,000,000. The budget for 1925-26 was: Revenues, £T153,000,000: expenditures, £T167,000,000; and for 1926-27: Revenues, £T218,315,000; expenditures, £T233,362,000. The public debt on Jan. 1, 1925, was approximately as follows: Foreign loans, £T146,475,081 (gold): Internal loan, £T17,851.120 (paper); paper currency ET158,748,565 (paper); floating debt. £T73,000,000 (paper). There is no gold reserve. According to the Lausanne Treaty the pre-war public debt, amounting to £129,000,000, will be distributed between Turkey and the territories detached after the Balkan War and the World War. By the decision announced on Nov. 6, 1925, Turkey is relieved of 37.75 per cent. of the debt of the former Ottoman Empire and her annuity, fixed at approximately £T6,500,000 a year. Foreign trade figures are: Imports. Exports. 1923............ £T144,789,000 £T 84,651,000 ($87,844,000) ($51,538,000) .£T193,611,000 ET158,868,000 ($102,420,000) ($84,041,000) 1924.. URUGUAY, REPUBLIC OF AREA, 72,153 square.miles. Uruguay, the smallest republic in South America, is bounded on the north and east by Brazil, on the south by the South Atlantic Ocean and the River Plate, and on the west by Argentina, the boundary line being the River Uruguay, which is navigable from the Plate to Salto, 200 miles north. In area it is slightly larger than the combined States of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connect!cut. Lying between latitudes 30° and 35° south and consisting of rolling grassy plains, it enjoys an extraordinarily healthy climate with a uniform temperature. It is agricultural and pastoral. Over 2.000.000 acres are under cultivation; of this, in 1923-24, 1,055,480 acres produced 336,378 metric tons of wheat, 569,026 produced 165,086 tons of maize: 120,303 produced oats and 104.941 linseed. In 1924-25, 8.018 acres were sown to birdseed and the wheat acreage was increased to 1,209,636. For grazing 38,000,000 acres of fertile land are used. The official live stock census of 1924 returned 8,431,673 cattle and 14,514,060 sheep: the wool clip for 1925 was 110.000.000 pounds. The export of animal products exceeded 80.000.000 pesos in 1924; and of agricultural products, 10,500,000 pesos. In 1924 there entered the ports 11,341 vessels of 12.824,931 tonnage. Great Britain is the best customer, with the United States second. Uruguay declared her independence of Spain Aug. 25, 1825. The present Constitution, 88 amended, came into force March 1, 1919. It provides for universal franchise for males over 18 and for proportional representation. The President is elected for four years by direct vote. He shares executive power with the National Administrative Council, which consists of nine members, six of the majority party and three of the largest minority -three retiring every two years all elected by direct popular vote. The President appoints the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, War and the Interior and has supreme control of these departments. The Council appoints the Ministers of Finance, Public Work, Industry and Education and has control. Congress has two Houses-the Senate of nineteen members, chosen for six years by an electoral college, one-third retiring every two years; and a House of Representatives of ninety members, chosen for three years by direct vote. There are nineteen departments, which have ample home rule. In the election of Feb. 8, 1925, the Nationalists were victorious for the first time in fifty years. Church and state are separated and there is complete religious toleration. The majority of the people are Roman Catholic. Primary education is compulsory and free. The educational system is highly progressive. The university at Montevideo had 4,165 students in 1922. Schools and hospitals are plentiful, and the prison at Montevideo is a model penal institution. The death penalty was abolished in 1907. Uruguay had, in 1922, 1,660 miles of railroads, mostly British owned, of which 1,060 miles are under state guarantee. The Bank of the Republic has a paid-up capital of $20,335,955. Its President and directors are appointed by the Government. It has the exclusive right to issue notes. The Government in 1912 created a National Insurance Bank and gave it a monopoly of issuing insurance. The standing army, in which service is voluntary, numbers 18,500, with a reserve of 157,439 in the National Guard service, which is compulsory. Uruguay has made great advances in social welfare legislation and administration during the last twelve years. Expenditure for old age pensions in 1924 was 2,224,385 pesos (2,040,843 in 1923) and on Dec. 31, 1924, 22,144 pensions were in effect. The republic is a member of the League of Nations. Par of exchange.. peso (paper) $1.0342 Rate of exchange, Oct. 1, 1926.. $1.0062 The public debt on July 1, 1925, amounted to $216,817,000, of which about $154,000,000 was external and largely for public works. This includes an issue of $30,000.000 6 per cent. gold bonds floated at 96.5 in New York, in April, 1926. The official estimate of the national wealth is 2,521,508,643 gold pesos (approximately $2,597,000,000); over $1,547 per capita. south by Brazil and Colombia and on the west br Colombia. It stretches from 12° 26' north to with two degrees of the Equator. The climate is tropical, hot and unhealthy in the coastal and river regions In area it is as large as the States of Texas, Louis ana and Arkansas combined. The spurs of the Eastern Andes and the foothills are covered with dense forest, and the high plateaus provide excellent grazing. The River Orinoco (over 1,600 miles in length) flows through many stretches of level prairies (llanos) and is navigable for 700 miles for large steamers and for 200 miles further for smaller vessels. A natural river or canal, the Casiqulare unites its upper reaches with the Rio Negro, a triutary of the Amazon. The island of Margarita (area of 400 square miles), noted for its pearl fishing, with Tortuga and seventy other islands, belongs to Venezuela, but Trinidad, at the mouth of the Or noco, is British and Curacao and others off the coast are Dutch. Agriculture and cattle raising are the chief indus tries, and the chief exports are coffee, cacao, balata, chiefly textiles, machinery and hardware. Thecountry is rich in metals, but is mostly undeveloped. The production of petroleum for the year 1925 was 2,874,486 metric tons (20,200,000 barrels for 1924, 1,329,784 (8,754,000 barrels); for 1921 639,257; for 1922, 334,923: for 1921, 218,246: 1920, 69,539; for 1919, 45,914. The law concer ing hydro-carbons, promulgated June 30, 1924 states clearly the rights and privileges of foreigners in the development of oil lands. Both British and American oil interests have secured possessions in the rich Maracaibo district. Coffee exports to the United States in the fiscal year 1924-25 amounted to 57,392,851 pounds valued at $12,771,387. There are (1923) 661 miles of railroads, Caracas (altitude 4,017 feet), the capital, being connected with Its seaport, La Guaira, by a railroad twentytwo miles long which is famous for its magnificent views. The roads of the country have been greatly improved of late years. In 1921, 1,061 vessels of 1,252,903 tonnage entered Venezuelan ports. Venezuela was the first of the Spanish colonies in South America to formally declare her independence (July 5, 1811), following the disturbing conditions in Spain caused by Napoleon. After severe fighting. the Republic of Colombia, of which the present states of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador formed the three departments, was established Dec. 17 1819, under the Presidency of the liberator, Gen Simon Bolivar. In May, 1830, a convention re created the Republic of Venezuela and adopted a constitution. Separation from Colombia was ami cable, but the boundary separating the two repub lics was not determined until 1923. Venezuela has had many revolutions and many revisions of its Constitution since the first was adopted in 1819. That now in force was adopted June 24, 1925. It provides for a President, elected by Congress for seven years; a Senate of forty mem bers, elected for three years, and a House of Deputies of about seventy-seven members, elected for three years. There are twenty autonomous states, a federal district and two territories. The Roman Catholic is the state religion, but religious liberty is guaranteed. Primary education is free sad There are 1,500 publie nominally compulsory. Higher elementary schools with 50,000 pupils. education has been much improved under recent administrations. By a law promulgated in June, 1919, military service was made compulsory. A in the reserve. Venezuela is a member of the League standing army of 8,000 is maintained with $7,000 of Nations. $17,564,731 Rate of exchange, Oct. 15, 1924........19.25 cents 11,588,601 26,525,298 6,875,439 AREA, approximately 393,976 square miles. POPULATION, census of 1920, 2,411,952; estimated Budget-1922-23 balanced at...bolivars, 61,706,000 1923-24 balanced at...bolivars, 62,845,000 1924-25 Receipts. .bolivars, 66,167,000 Expenditures.. bolivars, 63,354,500 1925-26 Receipts.. .bolivars, 95,000,000 Expenditures.bolivars, 92.800,000 Debt-Internal, Jan. 1, 1926..bolivars, 38,287,879 Imports and exports for three years: External. ..bolivars, 54,139,057 1925, 3,000.900. Year. 1921. Chief cities, Maracalbo, population, estimated 1925, 100,000: Valencia, 29,466; Varquisimeto, 23,943: chief port, La Guaira. 1922. 1923.. President, Gen. Juan Vicente Gomez, 1922-29. Year. 1920-21.. 1921-22. 1922-23. Venezuela is the northermost state of South America and is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the east by British Guiana, on the 1923-24 1924-25. 1925-26. 10,277,240 13,898,909 15,238,664 14,127,840 19,985.612 17.635,601 31.404,357 22,159,419 |