Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/704

 ?>48 ARGENTINE REPUBLIC

Expendilrne Dollars Gol<l Dollars Paper

Interior and Congress. . . j — 17,299,711

Foreign atfairs. . . . 237,441 i 249,792

Finance —, 6,872,114

Debt 22,746,732 \ 11,249,408

Justice, Instruction. . i —

War j _

Navy ....,,! —

Public Works 6,086,000

New Ministries .... —

Total. . . ; 29,070,173

10,331,466

14,027,582

11,2.56,614

4,400,000

96,000

75,782,687

In July, 1898, the National External Debt amounted to 61,900,352'., and the issue of bonds to the amount of 9,944,098^. was expected. Of these new bonds the amount of 1,819,100/. was for railway guarantees recission ; 6,746,030/. for the conversion of the Buenos Aires Provincial Debt, and 1,378,968 for the conversion of Buenos Aires Citv Debt. The total National External Debt thus rises to 71,844,450/.

On December 31, 1896, the Internal Debt amounted to 189,162,500 pesos gold and 45,838,067 pesos jtaper. In 1898 an Internal "Popular" loan to the amount of 39,000,000 i)esos was raised for the purpose of complementing the naval and military power of the country, and the issue of Internal bonds to the amount of 6,000,000 pesos was authorised for the discharge of the debt of the Department of Education. According to the President's message of May, 1898, the floating debt on December 31, 1897, after deducting realisable assets, amounted to about 39,000,000 pesos paper, while on December 31, 1896, it had been 52,237,318 pesos paper.

Each province and municipality has, besides, its own budget, the total national and provincial expenditure amounting to about 3/. per head. For 1896 the revenue of the province of Buenos Ayres was 13,502,580, and ex- I)enditure 8,844,190 dollars currency. The estimated expenditure of the 14 provinces for 1894 was 30,312,519 dollars. In 1895 the Provincial debts, including arrears of interest, amounted to 137,261,866 dollars gold, or 34,589,900/. The Municipal debts amount to 24,596,422 dollars gold.

In 1896 a Bill was approved for the unification of the National and Provincial foreign debts, and under this law the issue of 4 per cent, bonds for 34,000,000 pesos lias been authorised for the conversion of the External debt of the province of Buenos Aires. A Bill for the settlement of the railway guarantees was also approved, and only one company is now left to arrange the question, all the others having agreed to the terms and accepted the bonds created in lieu of all further claim.

Defence.

The army comprises 94 superior officers and 851 subaltern officers, while the rank and file numbers 12,073 men. The total effective army, according to a statement presented to Congress in 1897, should be 29,513 officers and men. The numl)er of men in the national guard is put at 480,000, the majority of whom now receive military training, those 20 years of age being mobilised every year and given two months drill in camp. The other guards are drilled every Sunday during two months.

There is a military school, with 125 cadets, and a school for non-com-