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 980

GUATEMALA

1917

Finance.

Ordinary revenue and expenditure in currency (186 paper dollars = £1 in 194 = £1 in 1916) :—

1916-17 1

Revenue

dollars 66,200,000

1917-18

1918-19

1919-20

1920-211

dollars 135,471,585

Expenditure '63, 095, 693 131,413,218

dollars dollars dollars

110,937,325 127,249,490! —

77,666,023 Il01,028,476ll35, 604,267

i Estimates.

On December 31, 1920 (according to the report of the Council of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders), the outstanding amount of the 4 per cent. External Debt of 1895 was 1,414,980Z. ; certificates in respect of unpaid interest, 844,6032. ; total, 2,259, 583Z. The internal debt on December 31, 1916, amounted to 135,799,843 dollars currency and 1,091,702 dollars sold.

Defence.

The military force of Guatemala, as reorganised, numbers 85,535 officers and men when mobilised. The reserve army consists of 40,575, divided into 81 battalions. All male citizens are liable to conscription from 18 to 50.

Production and Industry.

The Cordilleras divide Guatemala into two unequal drainage areas, of which the Atlantic is] much the greater. The Pacific slope, though com- paratively narrow, is exceptionally well watered and fertile between the altitudes of 1,000 and 5,000 feet, and is the most densely settled part of t lie Republic. The Atlantic slope is sparsely populated and has little of com- mercial importance beyond the timber cutting of the Peten, coffee cultivation of Coban region, and banana raising of the Motagua Valley and Lake Izabal district.

By the National Land Law of 1894, the State lands (except those on the frontiers and the sea-shore) were divided into lots for sale, the maximum allotment permitted to one person being 15 caballarias (or about 1,687 acres) ; and these cannot be sold under ten years. In December, 1915, the state took over all the ore lands in the country, and such land may be exploited only under leasehold. The forest area has an extent of 1,316,482 acres.

The soil in general is exceedingly fertile. The most important crop is coffee, of which there are 1,500 plantations under cultivation, covering an area of 96,000,000 square yards and containing some 450,000,000 coffee trees. The quantity produced in 1918 was 110,000,000 pounds. Germans own and control between 50 and 60 per cent, of the coffee plantations of Guatemala. Next to coffee, sugar is the most important crop ; the yield in 1918 was 42,000,000 pounds. Other crops in 1916 were 9,351,485 bunches <>l plantains and bananas, 6,110,900 quintals (of 101-433 pounds) of maize. Of the smaller crops, beans, 180,000 quintals, and wheat, 344,041 quintals, were about the same as the previous year; rice (135,547 quintals) and potatoes (248,000 quintals) were also produced.

The department of Peten is rich in mahogany and dye woods, for which there is a ready market in the United States, whither they are carried overland through British Honduras and Mexico. Peten is also the centre of the chicle (gum) industry ; in 1916,U07,195 lb. were obtained. Cotton is