clude a rough estimate on an annual basis which will clearly bring out proposed objectives and the results to be periodically attained. Since I consider united action to be essential, I am asking you to form a committee to carry out these instructions. I am taking this occasion also to emphasize my aims:

a) Improvement by irrigation of the largest possible land area, with a view to increasing our production of food crops; an increase in our production of coffee, cacao, and cotton; and the scientific development of our livestock industry.

b) Construction of a paved highway from Portau-Prince to Cap Haïtien. This road, so long desired, will be the main artery from the economic standpoint and, from the tourist travel standpoint it will constitute the principal section of an interior network that will give to our historic monuments, particularly the Citadelle Laferrière, a much more advantageous place than they now occupy.

And eventually we must plan a similar paved road linking Les Caves to Port-au-Prince.

c) Construction of other roads into the interior, suitable for the transit of jeeps, which will open up the lands put into agricultural use in even the most remote regions of the country.

d) Organization of our coastwise shipping and development of a maritime service in the Caribbean area.

e) Establishment of a program of action and tourist publicity to encourage travel. f) Development of small industries.

I am asking you to take the necessary steps so that the general plan and the estimates can be submitted to me not later than December 31, 1944.

In the hope that you will take full cognizance of the importance which I attach to your labors, I reiterate to you the assurances of my high esteem.

E. LESCOT

THE forest wealth of Honduras may be considered relatively large in proportion to its territory and population.

A traveler going up and down along the mountain roads, crossing extensive valleys such as those of Comayagua, Yoro, Olanchito, and Jamastrán, notes the density of the centuries-old forests and jungles, where there is an immense variety of trees of all sizes and kinds. We still, however, do not have even approximate statistics of the number of trees of each kind in the various Departments..

Olancho is rich in cedar and mahogany in the regions near the Patuca, as well as in the basins of the other rivers flowing towards

Boletin del Distrito Central, Tegucigalpa, julio 1943-enero 1944.

Mosquitia. This vast expanse has perhaps the greatest number of trees of all kinds, among which the sapodilla, which yields chicle, abounds. There are also many pine forests along the boundary with Nicaragua. As for Colón, Yoro, Cortés, Santa Bárbara, Copán, Gracias, La Esperanza, La Paz, Comayagua, Choluteca, and El Paraíso, their mountains and valleys contain great forests of trees from which lumber suitable for building and cabinet work may be obtained. In almost all these departments there are liquidamber trees which are very little exploited, and in the central part of the country pine trees cover the plateaus as, for instance, around Tegucigalpa. If the forest wealth of Honduras were properly regulated and utilized it could support the development of advantageous industries such as paper manu

facturing, because the whole country is crossed by numerous rivers from which hydraulic power could be developed. The falls on the Lindo river in the Department of Cortés are indeed beautiful; the river also waters important wooded districts and land on which almost any crop can be grown.

In towns and villages the pernicious practice still exists of clearing the forests for corn fields; cedars, mahogany, and quebracho trees, and other useful kinds are felled with no other purpose than to grow one or two corn crops on the virgin soil, while the valuable wood goes to waste.

It is urgently necessary to enact a law

regulating the distribution of communal lands. Municipalities also should control the use of their lands and stop the criminal destruction of the forests.

To develop agricultural and industrial enterprises and increase the national wealth. in the interior of the country, we must construct roads, since there are no railroads. The Departments of Olancho and Yoro, because of their geographic location in relation to the coast and frontier, their extent and their natural wealth, should be placed in communication with the capital and the north coast by highways over which large trucks can run.

Domestic Trade in Mexico

THE agriculture, as well as the industry of a country, must find solid bases for its development in domestic consumption; that is to say, in the consumption of its products by the inhabitants of the country itself. An economy based principally on placing raw or processed products in foreign markets is always an unstable economy because with rare exceptions it is at the mercy of the play of international trade.

These considerations justify the desirability of Mexico's trying to increase its home consumption and to facilitate trade in the agricultural and industrial commodities which it is capable of producing, in order that such products may be acquired in the greatest possible quantity by Mexicans themselves. There is no doubt that a significant increase in the domestic commerce of our country is still retarded by two profoundly important factors: first, the low purchasing power of a very large part of our population, and second, the still incomplete development of our communications system and the lack of means of transportation adequate for full utilization of the rail and highway routes which we already have.

The ejidatario has obtained undeniable and appreciable benefits from the Agrarian. Reform. But it is still difficult for him to spend even a part of his small income for certain agricultural food products from other regions of the country, or for manufactured articles which would permit him to appoach a minimum standard of living.

As for communications, Mexico senses and is giving constant heed to the necessity of increasing the length of its roads and railways to handle the increased production re

From an article in "Planificación," Secretaría General de la Comisión de Coordinación Económica Nacional, México, 6 de septiembre 1944.

sulting from the Agrarian Reform. There are many areas in the country that are unproductive because they lack communication with the rest of the Republic, and there are also numerous other areas which for the same reason cannot market what they produce. In certain regions fruits and other crops are raised which must be sold for a paltry sum, sometimes almost nothing, because there is no communication system and therefore no way to send commodities out of their place of origin to market. In other cases this lack of communications leads producers to think only of exportation as a means of moving their products, for it is easier and more economical to send merchandise abroad by sea than to direct it to the interior of the country.

Much agricultural production is localized in the various states, and the same is true of most of the products of industry, which in the majority of cases is likewise concentrated in certain states or even in fixed areas of states.

These viewpoints can be linked together in one prime consideration: the need for private commerce, producers, and consumers to establish an interstate trade system for many Mexican products which at present are consumed within the country in very small proportions. The existence of an extensive commercial system or network, which could very well be based on a simple broadening of the activities of various organizations already concerned with trade in certain indispensable articles, would be of enormous usefulness to the economic progress of Mexico. Such action would influence the quantity of our production by providing an outlet for a greater volume of goods, and production activities would be stimulated in both the agricultural and the industrial fields.

Of course, it should not be deduced from

this that we should let domestic trade eclipse our foreign trade. Nothing is farther from our aim. The preservation of our foreign markets and the pace of our exports is vital to our economy; the loss of a market for any product is irreparable and could only be considered as extremely prejudicial to our

country. We must preserve what we have won in the field of foreign trade. But that by no means excludes the possibility of also intensifying our home trade by giving due attention to its increasing demands, with resultant beneficial increases in national production. Meanwhile we must be prepared to

absorb within the country any portions of the production of any commodity that cannot be disposed of abroad; the absorption of such surpluses at home will serve to increase the home demand for many of our national agricultural and other products.

In this urgent phase of the establishment of an interstate system for the exchange of

goods, we consider that a highly important role devolves upon the Mixed Councils of Regional Economy and the Municipal and Local Economic Councils. These are appropriate and already existing organizations that could take the matter up with their central office, the National Economic Coordination Commission.

War Production

in Nicaragua

THE first cooperative project for increasing war production in the Latin American republics was worked out in the United States. With the help of American experts, Nicaragua has played its part in that project through a joint program which has been put into execution by the government. The value of our contribution to the triumph of Allied arms is attested by Mr. Adrian A. Walser, American director of the Commission of Food Specialists, who was sent by the Institute of Inter-American Affairs to cooperate in the project just mentioned; he states that Nicaragua is producing an exportable surplus.

This cooperative program has been in effect for more than a year, during which time we have succeeded in harvesting and storing more than 200 tons of rice, more than 10 tons of corn, and more than 5 tons of beans.

Walser said in Washington, when he returned from his visit here, that Nicaragua produces the most rubber of any Central American country; most of the crop has been sold to the Rubber Development Corporation and to lumber contractors.

Boletín de la Cámara Nacional de Comercio e Industrias de Managua, mayo y junio 1944.