Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1228

 1176 PERU

1883. A popular vote should in 1894 have decided to which country they are to belong, but owing to the failure of negotiations for arriving at a modus operandi, the decision was deferred.

As to the boundary dispute with Bolivia an arrangement has been come to by direct negotiations between Bolivia and Peru. The frontier line between them was fixed from the mouth of the Heath to that of the Yavtrija (1912), and finally demarcated by a joint commission. Those with Colombia and Ecuador were referred to the King of Spain. The question at issue concerned the possession of over 100,000 square miles of land rich in rubber, timber, and probably gold lying about the head waters of the Amazon. The King, on the evident unwillingness of Ecuador to decide the dispute by arbitration, renounced his functions as arbitrator in November, 1910. The United States then intervened, and hostilities were for the moment averted by the agreement of the disputants to accept tlie mediation of the United States, Argentina, and Brazil. A definite arrangement lias been made with Brazil as to boundary, favourable, on the whole, to Peru.

The region north of the Maraiion from the Pongo de Manseriche is claimed by Ecuador and Colombia and Peru. This region formed iu the Spanish Colonial days the Comandancia de Maynas, and was allocated to the Virreynato of Santa Fe, then to the Audiencia of Quito, and for religious and ecclesiastical purposes subject to the Archbishop of Lima. 1 1 has been occupied by Peru since 1840.

Religion.

By the terms of the Constitution there exists absolute political and religious liberty. The Roman Catholic religion is the religion of the State. There is a Roman Catholic archbishopric (Lima, dating from 1545), 18 bishoprics, 2 Apostolic Vicarages, and 2 Apostolic Prefectures. The churches and convents are the property of the State. In 1919, 22,158/. were voled for public worship, and 6tiQl. for missions. In 1897 an Act was passed enabling non-Catholics to contract civil marriages. In 1903 an Act was passed giving still greater facilities for the marriage of non-Catholics.

Instruction, Justice.

Elementary education is by law compulsory for both sexes, but the law is not enforced. It is free in the public schools that are maintained by the Government. In 1919, there were in Peru 3,006 primary schools with 4,9 I teachers and 181,211 pupils. There weie also in 1918, 27 Government high schools, with 6,231 pupils and 304 teachers. High schools arc mainl by the Government in the capitals of the departments, the pupils paying a moderate fee. There is in Lima a central university, called ' Universidad de San Marcos,' founded by Charles V. in 1551 ; it had in 1918, 1,480 students in five faculties. There are also universities at Arequipa (founded iu 1827), Cuzco, and Trujillo. Lima possesses a school of mines and civil engineering, created in 1874, with good collections and Laboratories, a national agricultural school, and a school of arts and trades recently established. There are in the capital and in some of the principal towns private high schools under the direction of English, German, ami Italian staffs. There are also a military and a naval school. Lima has also a public library, besides that of the university and school of mines.

Justice is administered in the Supreme Court at Lima composed of 11 judges and 3 fiscal*, and iu Superior and Minor Courts at Lima and 11 other