Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1230

 1178 PERU

Defence.

Military service in Peru is compulsory and universal. The terms arc 2 years in the active army, 7 years in the first reserve, 5 in the second reserve, and 15 years in the National Guard. The country is divided into 5 military districts, each furnishing a complete division. Each division contains 2 or 3 regiments of infantry of 2 battalions each (1 machine gun company per regiment) ; 1 group (2 batteries) field artillery ; 1 regiment mountain artillery ; I cavalry regiment of 2 squadrons; 1 railway company; 1 labour company; 1 topographical section ; 1 medical section ; 1 commissariat section. The General Staff is quartered at Lima, and is composed of 3 sections, a geographical department, commissariat, medical, and engineer services. The centres of instruction comprise: (1) military school to obtain rank of 2nd lieutenant, (2) special school, for lieutenants of all arms, (3) general staff academy, for captains qualifying for staff. The peace establishment of the army is 11,000, Police and gendarmerie amount to 8,000, distributed amongst civil guards and squadrons of mounted police. There is an ammunition factory. The infantry are armed with the 1912 Peruvian model of the Mauser rifle, cavalry with carbine of same type and model, artillery with the Schneider Canet gun. The civil schools (technical, secondary, and state provided) are organised in military fashion, and receive their military instruction from a permanent staff appointed by the General Staff. Shooting is compulsory for all coming within the terms of the military service law. There are also 176 State-aided rifle clubs under military control, with a roll of 16,000 marksmen. The Civil Guard numbered in 1918, 2,77l officers and men.

The Peruvian navy now consists of 6 vessels : the Lima, a cruiser of 1,700 tons displacement, which bas been rc-boiiered, and is to be re-armed. Two cruisers, the Almirante Grato and the Coronal Bolognesi, 3,200 tons a7id 24 knots speed, were launched at Barrow in April, 1906. There are also 2 submarines, Ferre and Palacios, and one torpedo destroyer, Tenientc Rodriguez (built in France and stationed at Callao).

Peru possesses a river flotilla on the Amazon, composed of the following vessels : — America, Iquitos, Cahuapanas, Orellana, Mequena, Puno, and Cuzco.

Agriculture and Industry.

The country may be divided into three zones: the coast strip, with an average width of 30 miles ; the Sierra, or Uplands, lying between the coast range of mountains and the Andes proper ; and the forest or wooded region, called the Montana. The chief agricultural productions of Peru are cotton, coffee, and sugar. The cotton area in 1916-17 (latest available statistics) is 158,224 acres ; cotton production in 1918 was 24,603 tons. The chief coffee-growing districts are those of Chanchamayo, Perene and Paucartam bo in Central Peru, where the Peruvian Corporation has done much useful colonising work. Coffee is also grown in the Huanuco district. The concession to the Corporation com- prises about 2,750,000 acres, but the labour and transport difficulties in the tropical forest region are serious ; much less than half the area conceded for colonisation is as yet occupied. The sugar industry, the most important in the country, is carried on chiefly in the coast region. The area devoted to cano cultivation was given in 1918 as 124,510 acres, and the numbci • of labourers in the industry as 23,456. In 1918, 283,190 tons were produced, in 1917, 310,000 tons. Cocoa cultivation is extending, about 200,000 cocoa trees having been recently planted in the Perene region. Wheat in 1918 was grown on 2 - Z0,740 acres, which produced 62,115 tons. Rice is extensively grown ; in 1918 the area was 77,405 acres ; the production in 1918 was