Ministry of Public Education.-Innumer able volunteers and more than 13,000 teachers are taking part in the Peruvian campaign against illiteracy which was instituted by a Supreme Decree of March 4, 1943, and began on May 14, Teachers' Day. Under the Ministry of Education, a Coordinating Bureau to supervise this project was created and district and provincial committees are assisting in the gigantic effort. The plan includes instructing the illiterate. in reading, writing, arithmetic, health preservation, and the elements of the country's history. A guide for teachers has been prepared and two volumes (the Libro Peruano de Lectura and the Informativo Peruano) have been given to the students. Lesson cards numbering 900,000 have been printed and the facilities of the National School of the Air are also being devoted to furthering the campaign.

Peru has been adding to its educational establishments. From 1940 until the date of this message, 2,935 primary schools were created. By a decree put into effect during 1943, primary teachers' salaries are to be higher, and an increase of 5 percent for each five years in service has been granted. A guarantee of permanent tenure was also granted to these teachers.

Problems relating to the education of the Peruvian child were discussed at the first meeting of the Peruvian Director of Public Education, the school inspectors, and the leaders of the country's Provincial Teachers Associations. This assembly was held in Lima from February 9 to 17, 1944.

On August 12, 1943, the President by Supreme Decree created the Leoncio Prado Military School, while in Celendín, Coracora and Paita, three new boys' high schools were opened, and facilities were improved in a score of others. The rise in pay for the primary teachers was extended to apply to secondary school teachers, although mini

The opportunities offered to students in this branch of education were increased with the creation of a Central Polytechnic Institute and an Institute of Domestic Sciences and Useful Arts in the department of Junín, of the Metallurgy School in Oroya, and of various industrial sections annexed to high schools. A grant of 100,000,000 soles1 was made to the National School of Engineers for research in industrial chemistry. The National Vocational School was completely reorganized.

Other activities carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Education inIcluded the establishment of more rural normal schools (number in 1940-2, present number-19); and the inauguration of the building for the National Institute of Physical Education and of a special school for tuberculous students. Government sponsored X-ray examinations for tuberculosis and vaccination against diphtheria were extended to additional schools.

For study in the Aldedo National Academy of Music, 222 scholarships were granted, and a course in the theater was opened by government decree.

Work now being done to reconstruct the National Library was facilitated by the receipt of more than 15,000 volumes from foreign countries and of 5,000 volumes from Peruvian sources (excluding those deposited with the government in accordance with the printing laws), and gifts of money amounting to 55,000 soles.

Ministry of the Treasury and Commerce. The national budget for the fiscal year 1943 called for expenditures amounting to 318,550,000 soles, and 346,281,259 soles were received by the government, the largest part of this amount income from indirect

taxes.

The budget for 1944 provides for the expenditure of 377,269,000 soles. The commercial and savings banks increased the amount of their loans by 99,000,000 soles to a total of 491,000,000, as against 392,000,000 in 1943. Axis property to a value of 11,899,087 soles was confiscated and reverted to the government. Government revenues from imports in 1943 amounted to 141,395,472 soles, an increase of 19,950,092 soles over the previous year.

Law No. 9,929 authorized the amplification of the Internal Loan of 1940 by 50,000,000 soles, and on May 29, 1943, the government floated the first series of these bonds, amounting to 25,000,000 soles.

For a review of Peruvian foreign trade in 1943, see BULLETIN for September 1944.

Ministry of Development and Public Works. Under the direction of this ministry, a great deal of work was accomplished on the national highway system during 1943. An additional 755 miles of road were completed; 121 miles of road improved; 30 miles of road asphalted; 311 miles of road hard-surfaced; and 5 miles of concrete or metal bridges built. The Huánuco-Pucallpa highway, a 525-mile road opening a direct route from the Pacific to the interior of Brazil and to the Atlantic ocean, was inaugurated in September 1943

(see BULLETIN for March 1944), and work was continued on seven secondary highways and many other roads.

The Peruvian railways, including both private and government-owned lines, transported 81,419,502 passengers in 1943 (21.75 percent increase from the previous year) and 3,271,440 tons of freight (2.4 percent increase), with an accompanying increase of 19.78 percent in revenue. The construction of a railway from Matarani to Oroya was begun.

In the Bureau of Mines and Petroleum, government control of coal exports was established. The Bureau is planning a geological map of the country, and in connection with the Santa Corporation's plan to develop the nation's iron and steel industry, an aerophotographic plan of the Marcona region, where rich coal and iron. deposits are to be found, was made.

Petroleum production in 1943 reached 15,692,978 barrels, with a value of 124,338,364 soles, an increase of 7.25 percent over the preceding year. Mining production rose to 390,000,000 soles in value, an increase of 20,000,000 in comparison to 1943 production.

Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. The war-occasioned food shortages gave rise in Peru to an intensive campaign for food production, especially in the relatively undeveloped sierra region. It is hoped that the present year's activity will result in a 20 percent increase in the production of wheat, barley, oats, rye, potatoes, and other grains, and that future developments will result in a 40 or 50 percent increase in the production of food products. Legislation to this end included reduction by 20 percent of the area sown to cotton, thus making additional acreage available for the cultivation of edible crops, and required planting of suitable areas near highways to facilitate transportation. Increased pro

duction of flax and pyrethrum was also instigated. The Inter-American Cooperative Food Production Service, established under the auspices of the United States Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, has been functioning in Peru since June 1943, and the agreement was recently extended to last until August 15, 1945. This new branch of the Ministry of Agriculture is jointly maintained. by the United States and Peruvian governments. Outstanding among its achievements. are the founding of rural agencies in the Republic's principal zones to oversee the program, the construction of grain and tuber storage and fumigation facilities, and the planting of victory gardens throughout the country.

The formation of cooperatives, especially producers' cooperatives in Indian communities, is being promoted, and a Special Committee on Inter-Cooperative Relations has been set up.

The year 1943 brought the establishment of a Bureau of Animal Husbandry and a Bureau of Hunting and Fishing, and saw the initiation of a vast campaign for reforestation of the country's devastated areas (see BULLETIN for May 1944).

The President spoke of the shortages of wheat and flour, the satisfactory rice and sugar crops, and of the new evaporated and condensed milk industry, which in 1943 turned out 65.5 percent and 52.5 percent respectively of the country's requirements of these articles. It is hoped to begin production of powdered milk in 1945.

Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance. Additional health services were made available to the public with the creation of the Bureau of Dental Inspection, the National Service of Maternal and Child Welfare, the Institute of Mental Hygiene for Children, and the installation of two prenatal and post-natal clinics. Construction was begun on the 1,000-bed National Anti

Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Lima. The Inter-American Cooperative Public Health Service, continuing its work in the clinics. and dispensaries whose establishment it fostered, will soon have three new clinics (in San Martín, Chimbote, and Iquitos) to add to its list.

The Government is continuing construction on many hospitals. The funds in the national budget appropriated to hospitals amounted to 18,702,215 soles.

Campaigns against communicable diseases were extended throughout the country.

Ministry of National Defense.-The President devoted an extensive portion of his message to a report on the state of the nation's armed services and the civilian defense organization. An office for the coordination of national transport was created. As for aviation, a group of Air Force Reserves was organized, a general Aeronautics Law was prepared, and a new national airport at Limatambo was opened.

Message of the President of Mexico

On September 1, 1944, General Manuel Ávila Camacho, President of Mexico, delivered his annual message to the National Congress. Some of the high lights of the message, which discussed at considerable length the activities of all government de partments during the period September 1, 1943-August 31, 1944, are presented herewith in summary form.

Treasury and Public Credit.-Treasury receipts during the first six months of the year were 572,686,420 pesos,1 an excess over budget estimates of 28 million pesos. An amendment to the income tax law providing for pay-as-you-go collections gave the Government additional current income which permitted the financing of the public works

program without recourse to credit. Service was maintained on both national and foreign debt. The budget for the current year calls for public expenditures totaling 1,231,018,100 pesos, among which the following items are outstanding: irrigation works, 112,000,000 pesos; highway construction and maintenance, 125,000,000; railway construction, 24,000,000; dredging, shipyards, docks, and other port works, 13,000,000; construction of schools, barracks, airports, and other buildings, 28,000,000; maintenance of the army, 26,000,000; increases in the capital of the National Banks of Ejidal Credit and of Agricultural Credit, 20,000,000 and 4,000,000, respectively; water systems for small communities, 3,000,000; social security, 2,500,000; and debt service, 322,798,000. Instead of using its credit with the Bank of Mexico, the Government made every effort to cancel its obligations with the Bank; such cancellations amounted to 75,877,000 pesos during the period December 31, 1943August 12, 1944.

At

Mexico, like the rest of the world, continued to feel the effects of the war and the Government had as its constant aim the mitigation of those effects as much as possible. Rising prices, increased money in circulation, and dislocation of foreign trade required and received close attention. the same time, however, the Government sought to avoid any measures that would create obstacles to future development of the country, or more concretely, to the industrialization of its resources from which so much is hoped for the eventual economic and social advancement of the masses.

The money in circulation (bank deposits and money in the hands of the public) amounted, said the President, to 650,000,000 pesos, derived principally from acquisitions of gold and exchange by the Bank of Mexico which raised the resources of the Bank to an unprecedented figure. Where

credit was not destined directly for an increase in national production, industrial or agricultural, the Government consistently tried to avoid its excessive expansion and to that end first decreed that banks of the Federal District must keep in cash on hand 50 percent and banks outside the District 33 to 35 percent of their deposits, and second, took steps to stabilize the amount of credit extended by private banking institutions.

The Bank of Mexico continued to sell gold and in order to avoid international speculation the Government centralized through the Bank all gold imports and exports. Also, export duties on food products were increased, to avert possible scarcities within the country, and in some cases dutyfree importation was authorized for certain articles whose domestic production was insufficient.

"It is not unjustified optimism," stated the President, "to affirm that we have passed the gravest stage of the state of emergency and that the hour has arrived to fix the general outlines of the economic and financial program which Mexico must develop in the period immediately following the war. A fundamental point of that program will be the use of the savings which the Mexican¦ people have accumulated and which are represented by the gold reserve and exchange of the Bank of Mexico, the value of which was 1,382,546,000 pesos on July 31, 1944.”

Department of National Economy.Among the several grave complications in the general national economy, increased prices constituted the fundamental problem. To help combat the rise, prices were frozen on many foodstuffs and other products. In January 1944 price control was centered in the Treasury Department, a transfer which later required a like concentration in the same department of export control and supervision of organizations created for controlling market operations, such as the ;

National Distributing and Regulating Company.

Exports for 1943 totaled 1,130,000,000 and imports 910,000,000 pesos. The foreign demand for certain products, such as henequen, coffee, chicle, vanilla, hard fibers, and others strengthened the economy of some regions. To safeguard home consumption, regulations were issued governing the production and distribution of rubber and its manufactures and exports of various important products.

The index of industrial production rose, the greatest growth taking place in vegetable oils, cotton textiles, food products, and paper. In 1943, 61 new industrial enterprises began to operate and in the first six months of 1944, 63 more. These new production units represent a considerable investment of capital and a source of work which contributes appreciably to the economic welfare of the nation. Realizing that industrialization is the medium par excellence for achieving the economic development of the country and for raising the general standard of living, the Government created the Federal Industrial Development Commission to foster new enterprise and continued through the Federal Electric Power Commission to carry out the plan for electrification of regions appropriate for industrial activity.

As for mining activity, production of precious metals in 1943 totaled 2,700 tons valued at 291,000,000 pesos; of industrial metals, 634,000 tons, and of metalloids, 54,000 tons, valued at 32,300,000 pesos. After the end of 1943 a decrease was noted in mining production, caused principally by the tendency of foreign markets to reduce purchases, a factor which likewise provoked a decline in prices.

Agriculture and Agrarian Affairs.—The prime objective in this field was to produce at home the agricultural items needed for national consumption, with particular stress

Due to

on increased production of corn. weather factors, the corn crop did not fulfill all hopes. The yield was 1,775,000 tons, but it was still necessary to import 73,785. As part of the campaign to increase production, a resolution of February 16, 1944, authorized any person freely to cultivate corn on unoccupied federal-owned lands.

During 1943 agricultural exports amounted to 373,500,000 pesos, the prin cipal items being henequen, coffee, cattle, chicle, bananas, guayule rubber, candelilla wax, chickpeas, ixtle fiber, and cotton; agricultural imports were valued at more than 175,000,000 pesos and included mainly wheat, lard, crude rubber, wool, hides and skins, corn, hops, and malt.

The National Bank of Ejidal Credit made loans during the year totaling 103,000,000 pesos; repayments amounted to 87,000,000 pesos. Both figures represent a new high mark in the Bank's operations. The National Bank of Agricultural Credit extended credit to the sum of 22,000,000 pesos and made collections of more than a million.

The Government fostered the organization of machinery centers where ejidatarios and small farmers who do not own farm machinery could obtain it for use. Extension of irrigation projects was another point of interest. During the present Administration's first three years, over 642,000 acres of land have been irrigated or improved, a figure equal to the total land irrigated or improved by the National Irrigation Commission during its first fifteen years of existence, from 1926 to 1940.

The agrarian reform continues to occupy its basic position in the economic and social development of the nation. A special objective of recent months has been to relocate campesinos of densely populated areas in other more sparsely settled regions. Thus far 40 new rural population centers have been established under conditions favorable