Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/408

 400] FOEEIGN HISTOKY. [1899.

the countries to arbitration, and also that they had mutually agreed to reduce their naval and military expenses.

The total wool production was about 225,000 tons, as re- ported in December, and it was of better quality than in the previous year. The estimated wheat surplus for export was 2,000,000 tons, and 150,000 tons of last year's harvest was still unshipped.

Brazil. — To save expenditure the Government issued a decree in January abolishing two naval and three military arsenals.

The Congress was opened on May 3. President Campos Salles, in his message, expressed an opinion in favour of leasing the Brazilian Central Bailway, and showed that the smaller Government lines already leased, which formerly were unprofitable, were doing well under private management. Con- gress had authorised him to deal in the same manner with the Central Road, and eventually he would do so, and in such a way as greatly to improve the state of Brazilian finances. The first step toward financial reform would be to lessen the mass of paper money. Another would be the raising of a guarantee fund made up from the gold duties increased by 5 per cent. The Redemption Fund would be derived from the income of railways already leased, and from the payment by banks of the amount of their indebtedness, and the sale of other assets held by the Government. He recommended that Brazil should export what she produced under better conditions than other countries, and import everything that other countries could better produce than Brazil.

President Roca of Argentina arrived at Rio Janeiro (Aug. 8) on a visit, and received an enthusiastic public welcome. General Roca, before leaving on the 18th, gave about 2,000Z. to the poor of the city.

Cotton factories for manufacturing the excellent cotton grown in Brazil were thriving. Numerous foreign colonies had settled in the States of Parana and Santa Catharina > and were prospering. The Italians were trying to establish a silk industry, and the German colonising companies were buying large tracts of land and selling small lots to colonists on easy terms of payment.

A new judgment was given in July in the case of the assassination of Marshal Bittencourt, when an attempt was made on the life of President Moraes (Nov. 5, 1897), by which Captain Diocteano and two other men, named Martyr and Pacheco, were sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment.

In September the Committee on Tariffs of the Chamber of Deputies reported in favour of placing a very heavy export duty on coffee to be sent to France, Germany and Italy, and a movable tariff was proposed in favour of nations making concessions to Brazil.

The inhabitants of the Acre territory, claimed both by