BOLIVIAN WORKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 6 (Supplement)

BOLIVIAN WORKERS.

THRIVE ON COCOA LEAF.

GENEVA DRUG PARLEY SURPRISED

The statement of the Bolivian delegate, Manuel Cuellar, at the Geneva conference for the limitation on the use of alkaloids, that the Bolivian government finds it impossible to restrict the production of cocoa leaves without injuring the needs of the Bolivvian labourer, has caused much surprise throughout the world. It was said that chewing cocoa, rather than affecting the health of labourers, enables them to do- more intense work.

Various prominent Bolivian physicians and industrialists employing large numbers of Indians are unanimous in the opinion that in the United States-*and Europe only the effects of the active principle in tl)e cocoa, natnely. cocaine, are known. Chewing cocoa leaves is said to have an entirely different effect from that of cocaine. This practice has been prevalent in the highland regions of South America since pre-Incaic times. The Indians chew the leaves to avoid fatigue and restore their nervous eqtdi librium.

Besides, the alkaloid leaves .contain certain elements which never have been studied. They act as powerful stimulants and preservers of physical and intellectual energy.

On the other hand, chewing leaves is sa'id to avert soroche, or mountain sickness, and to preserve the teeth. The highland Indians'have perfect teeth. It is claimed "to be an effective tonic and 4aht chewing the leaf shows no ill after effects. This is proved, it is added, by the fact tha£ although the Bolivian Indlftn perhaps is the worst fed in the woffcl, he attains an unusually long life and 4s comparatively free from constitutional disease.