REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA

\ NATURE’S CRAZY-QUILT

(By

H.V.)

Whether the South American republic of Bolivia will lose another slice of its territory as a result of the dispute with its neighbouring republic, Paraguay, yet remains to be seen. The odds appear to be against Bolivia. Ever since 1809, when after a war of independence with Peru, it became a separate State, its limits have been ill-defined and a series of disputes with its neighbours in regard to frontiers has invariably resulted in loss of territory to Bolivia. The present dispute is a century old but it has been revived of recent years. In 1927 Bolivia and Paraguay reopened negotiations in an attempt to solve the boundary trouble in the Gran Chaco. By a protocol the two nations agreed to arbitrate the question, but the commission set up reached an ’impasse by the end of the year. Intermittent meetings took place in 1928, but the year concluded with an opeu clash between armed forces. However, just before the end of 1928 both countries agreed to accept the mediation offer of an international conference of American States. Parleying since then has been unsuccessful and the nations have come to blows again. The Gran Chaco is a huge territory split up between Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. It was the Incas who gave thd land the name “chaco,” which means a hunting ground. The Gran Chaco is a region of extensive, grassy plains, woodlands, swamps and forests filled with valuable timber. It remains today the largest of the many hostile and unexplored tracts of country in the republic of fantastically mixed features. “When the rest of the world had been completed.” says A. V. L. Guise, a writer who spent many years in the country, “materials of every description were left over. These were pieced together to make a country now known as Bolivia, nature’s crazy-quilt.' Snow mountains and volcanoes, great lakes, deserts, dense forest and grassy plains, cataracts and swamps, zones of arctic winter and torrid heat —all these are to be found within its confines.” Bolivia has no seaboard. What she had she lost to Chile as the result of a war. Despite this and other severe amputations the State remains the.third largest in the South American continent, • with an estimated area of 700,000 square miles. Her losses to neighbouring States of large territories were, however, the price of Bolivia’s prosperity, for with the sum received in compensation from Chile and Brazil, the government was able to begin the construction of the railways for lack of which the country remained socially and economically in the dark ages. The climate of Bolivia varies widely. That of the eastern section ranges from pleasantly hot in the south to torrid in the north, with the usual alternations of wet and dry > seasons. Five months of cloudless skies are followed by an intermediate stage of violent thunderstorms and squalls. Though the open plains of the middle and southernlowlands are comparatively healthy, in the jungle-covered north malaria fever is rife. The sub-tropical region of valleys that lies-between 5900 and 9000 ft. above sea-level possesses a delightful climate, almost a perpetual summer. The rainfall is moderate and the temperature varies but little. At 11,000 ft. begins the Puna, the climate of which, though harsh, is very healthy. Higher still, until the snow-line is reached above 17,000 ft., conditions are still more severe.

Agriculturally Bolivia is.. still in a prehistoric age. The Indian of the high plateau, morose and grudging as the land in which he dwells, tills or rather scratches the soil with primitive implements of wood. Fertilisers he never uses and the crops he raises are as. scanty as the labour he expends on( them. The native of the tropical or semi-tropical zone has little use for work, for nature works for him with the least possible assistance and iewards his sloth with prodigal gifts. The valleys are capable of producing quantities of wheat and maize sufficient to support a large population. All manners of fruits grow luxuriantly. The vast undeveloped wealth of temperate and tropical Bolivia has its counterpart in the incalculable mineral resources of the highlands. Tin, copper, silver, gold, wolfram and bismuth are being mined in increasing quantities. Tin is chiefly mined at the present day and though the ground has as yet scarcely been scratched Bolivia produces a quarter of the world’s supply. The mining industry, however, is still handicapped by the lack of transport. Iron ore and: anthracite have been discovered in the lowlands. But the chief buried treasure of the plains is petroleum. Indications suggest that certain districts will prove rich in oil. Roads worthy of the/ name do not exist in the country. Before the coming of the railroads passenger coaches and carts lurched and bumped across sandy plain or hilly track. Such means are still used for the carrying of passengers and mails across the gap of 209 miles between the railway systems of southern Bolivia and northern Argentina. Its long and numerous rivers provide the northern section of the lowlands with its chief means of communication and transport. They link up with the Amazon and so provide an outlet. The southern lowlands, though less well endowed with large rivers, possess two that give accesi via the River Plate to the Atlantic. The Paraguay, which is also the subject of dispute between the two neighbouring republics, is navigable for big river steamers for more than 1000 miles and is the only means of marketing the produce of south-eastern Bolivia.

Thanks to the export of tin and othei' ores Bolivia’s trade returns have shown a comfortable credit balance, a balance that would be greatly increased were the country self-supporting in the matter of foodstuffs, as it should 'be. Bolivia’s best customer is Great Britain, but a large part of her import trade has been captured by the United States. Imports from Great Britain are a close second to those from the United States. Bolivia has the distinction of possessing two capitals—La Paz, the seat of Government, and Sucre, the constitutional capital. The first view of La Paz is surprising. Not until the train has drawn alongside a precipice can be seen what appears to be a toy town of red roofs in a setting of jade green lying 1500 ft. below at the bottom of a deep crevasse. The cobblerpaved streets of the town are Steep and slippery and the walls of the houses are painted with distemper. Sucre lies at an altitude of 9328 ft. on a little plateau surrounded by | the mountains of southern Bolivia.