principles of safety and first aid. In addition to holding schoolroom classes for this purpose, the company has also urged each. group of workers on its various oil fields to form individual safety committees. These committees meet once a month, under the direction of their immediate supervisors, to recommend and discuss new ways of improving the safety standards of their group. Accidents which have occurred in the past are carefully analyzed at these meetings, and methods are devised for avoiding similar ones in the future. Recently, Creole Petroleum Corporation has employed the services of an expert in the field of industrial safety in an effort to increase the efficiency of its campaign. Children's theater in Mexico One of the best contributions of Mexico's Institute of Fine Arts is its Children's Theater, which during August 1947 offered an outstanding production of Don Quijote, specially adapted for child audiences by Salvador Novo, chief of the Institute's Theater and Literature Section. On the fourth centennial of Cervantes, his Don Quijote was brought up to date to meet the threat of the atom bomb but his spirit was unchanged. The actual production was a cooperative effort which brought together actors from the School of Theater Arts and, for the ballet scene, children from the National School of the Dance. Carlos Chávez, Director of the Institute, Bal y Gay, and Galindo collaborated to produce special music, which was performed by the Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Outstanding costuming, scenery, and effects combined to provide a memorable experience for the enthusiastic audiences. Particularly noteworthy were the children. costumed as lambs for the ballet, Dulcinea's appearance in the moon, cloud ef fects, and finally the dramatic disappearance into the sky of Don Quijote and Sancho astride a magic horse. Travel fellowships To promote closer educational and cultural ties among the Americas, Pan American World Airways and the Institute of International Education have again this year granted travel fellowships to ten Latin American students. Winners of the awards, which originated in 1937, were flown to United States colleges and universities of their choice for study during the 1947-48 academic year. The countries represented, together with the institutions chosen, are as follows: Argentina-the Mayo Clinic Brazil-Miami University, Oxford, Ohio Cuba-University of California Guatemala-Ohio State University Mexico-Barnard College Paraguay-University of Idaho We see by the papers that • The Government of Ecuador has created a new Commercial Office in Washington, which will serve as a point of contact for establishing commercial relations between Ecuador and the United States. As the Ecuadorean Government has explained, the country is in vital need of a number of the United commodities produced in the States, both agricultural and industrial, and it is hoped that the Commercial Office will be able to expedite the proper negotiations to obtain them. • Dr. T. Lynn Smith, formerly head of the sociology department at Louisiana State University and now in charge of Brazilian studies at Vanderbilt University, received in Rio de Janeiro the degree of doctor honoris causa, the highest honor awarded by the University of Brazil. The degree was awarded in recognition of Dr. Smith's research work in writing Brazil: People and Institutions, recently published by the Louisiana State University Press. • On August 20, 1947, Argentina passed a law making collective life insurance obligatory for all Federal Government employees. The minimum amount of insurance is 4,000 pesos (about $988) with options up to 10,000 pesos, depending on the wage or salary of the individual. Part of the premium (which is 1 peso a month on every 1,000 pesos of insured capital) will be paid by the State on all policies not exceeding 4,000 pesos. Any optional insurance which an employee may wish to take out over this specified minimum must, however, be paid for out of his own pocket. • The Foreign Commerce Weekly reports that South America's most modern power plant, the 42,600-kilowatt station of the Compañia Paulista de Força e Luz at Avanhandava Falls in the northwestern part of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, went into operation on August 24, 1947. This plant is another concrete result of Brazilian-United States cooperation. Engineers from both countries supervised its construction, and it contains both United States and Brazilian equipment. • On August 21, 1947, the Argentine Government accepted the first of fifteen Sikorsky S-51 helicopters. They will be used primarily for search and rescue work in Argentina's back country, for spraying and dusting crops, and for aerial surveys. • The Casa de México is the bid of a San Antonio businessman for increased Mexican-United States trade as well as for a community center for the city's Mexican population. The Mexican Consul General, the Government Tourist Bureau, and the Mexican Chamber of Commerce are already quartered in the new building, which is designed to attract firms engaged in international trade. • In a move to bring home to the people of Janesville, Wisconsin, the importance of foreign trade to their livelihood, the Parker Pen Company distributed about 40 percent of its September 19 payroll in Mexican pesos which local business places and banks accepted at 20 cents each. • Daniel Carpio, a Peruvian living in Buenos Aires, swam the English Channel last September, the first person to accomplish this feat since 1939. Waves and currents obliged him to swim 42 miles instead of the airline distance of 19 miles from Cape Gris-Nez to a point near Dover. His time was 14 hours 46 minutes. The record, held by a Frenchman, is 11 hours 5 minutes. • The Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has published a notice of redemption and payment of all issues of its outstanding dollar bonds on their next interest dates, between August 1, 1947 and January 1, 1948. With payment of these issues, which total about $50,000,000, Argentina will have no dollar bond indebtedness outstanding, inasmuch as national government, city and other provincial dollar bonds have previously been redeemed. • The Minister of Marine of Argentina has drawn up a plan for the development of the natural resources of Tierra del Fuego, since, as he points out, this area is becoming increasingly important to Argentina, both because of its economic value and its strategic position as a gateway to the Antarctic. Industries to be developed are forestry and timber, coal and peat, sheep farming, potato growing, and marine and river life. Numerous industrial enterprises will be provided to carry out the plan, such as a wool-scouring plant to promote sheep farming, a plant to distill peat for the purpose of extracting certain chemical substances, and plants for the packing of fish and the processing of various products obtainable from seals and whales. As a corollary of this program, housing will be arranged for the workers, as well as new hotels and communications systems for the promotion of tourist trade. • The Venezuelan Cernent Company has completed the construction of its new factory in Maracaibo, which was commenced in 1945. This is the first large industrial plant to be erected in Venezuela since the end of the war, and it is producing a total of 250 tons of cement a day. The factory was built at a cost of about $3,000,000 and is equipped with the most up-to-date machinery of its kind available. The first hotel in the Dominican Republic's projected $12,000,000 chain of fourteen luxury resorts has been opened in San Cristóbal. A casino, tennis courts, and a 120-foot, palm-fringed swimming pool are included in the hotel's equipment. These modern accommodations are planned to attract a large tourist trade. • Venezuela is receiving large shipments of material for the new refineries soon to be erected in Guanta-Puerto La Cruz by the Sinclair Refining and Mene Grande Oil companies. The equipment being imported for this purpose includes materials. for the building of offices and living quarters, as well as for the actual construction of the refineries themselves. It is estimated that, when completed, Sinclair's refinery will produce 35,000 barrels of oil daily, whereas the Mene Grande installation will have a capacity of 20,000 barrels a day. Both plants should be in full production by 1951. The Shepard Steamship Company of Boston has started a new fast cargo and passenger service (10,000 tons of freight and 12 passengers) between United States and South American ports, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Baltimore, Recife, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. The Panama Pacific Line, a subsidiary of United States Lines, has resumed under private operation its monthly sailings from New York and Baltimore to Los Angeles and San Francisco via the Panama Canal. Seven thousand new telephones have been added to the listings in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, thanks to a new exchange in a residential section of the city called Los Caobos. The Loide Brasileiro, the steamship line owned by the Brazilian Government, is increasing its fleet of 76 passenger and cargo vessels by 17, 12 built in the United States and five in Canada. In the newest boat part of the cargo space is refrigerated. Before the war the Loide had 110 vessels operating in the Brazilian coastal service or between Brazil and the United States or Europe. The Faucett Aviation Company of Peru was the recipient of an Inter-American Safety Council's 1946 Safety Award. During the year Faucett flew 11,591,324 passenger miles without accident. • Twelve cadets from the Mexican Military Academy visited Washington, New York City, and West Point in October as official guests of the United States. In September, West Point cadets had gone to Mexico, where they participated in ceremonies honoring the Boy Heroes and Independence Day. By the end of 1947, Brazil should have received 53,000 trucks from the United States, if deliveries have kept pace with |