April i, 1903] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



221 



THK F.NI) OF THE I'.ol.lVIAN SYNDICATE. 



r^" H E group of financiers known as the Bolivian Syndicate 

 has been dissolved and the " Acre Concession " is a 

 thing of the past. As for the boundary dispute be- 

 tween Brazil and Bolivia, which this concession was 

 t tie means of reviving, it is based now upon precisely the same 

 conditions that existed before. The final act of the Bolivian 

 Syndicate was the acceptance of a casn indemnity from tin- 

 Brazilian government, the amount of which, as yet, is known 

 only to the parties to the transaction. Brazil has not bought 

 anything, but simply has paid the holders of the conns-., m 

 from Bolivia to get out of the Acre territory. The concession- 

 aires, by their acceptance of the money, renounce all rights 01 

 1 laims under the Bolivian grant, leaving the boundary ques 

 tion to be settled without their having to be considered. Bra- 

 zil can claim no rights under the concession, because by the 

 terms of the grant a company with not less than $2,500000 

 capital was to be formed within a given period for working the 

 concession, and, such company not having been formed, the 

 concession has been terminated by 

 the lapse of time. The failure to 

 organize the company, of course, 

 was owing to the difficulties raised 

 by Brazil. 



It is true that Brazil may con- 

 sider her title to the disputed ter- 

 ritory to be stronger by reason of 

 the payment made to the Syndi- 

 cate, and Bolivia may protest that 

 the acceptance of an indemnity by 

 the concessionaires was in violation 

 ol the terms of their grant. But 

 they have the money, the conces- 

 sion has died a natural death, and 

 whenever the boundary dispute 

 conies up for arbitration, the ques- 

 tion will be merely one of interpre- 

 tation of the terms of an old treaty 

 between Brazil and Bolivia. The 

 boundary line agreed upon was to 

 start from a fixed point (never in 

 dispute) and run westwardly to the 

 "source of the J a vary " — a region 

 which had not then been explored 

 — and ever since each country has 

 been claiming more territory than the other has been willing 

 to concede. The task for arbitration is to fix the boundary line 

 by locating the source of "the river Javary. But however the 

 line may be drawn, it can hardly be so far south as to give to 

 Brazil a very great share of the so called Acre district. 



MAD OF THE BOLIVIAN CONCESSIONS 



The concession relinquished hy the Bolivian Syndicate is tha 1 

 bounded by the doited triangle Brazil contends that ilu- upper 

 boundary line should run due west instead oi extending upward to 

 the left. The Caupolican eonci ion, in the lowei part "i ih<- map 

 is retained i-v The Bolh lan ' - 1 



concession. Brazil is understood to have made proposals 

 of exchange of .>' her territory for the Acre, of free navigation, 

 eti . Bolivia rejected all proposals, in the evident belief that a 

 revocation of the grant to the Syndicate, for whatever reason, 

 would weaken her hold upon the Acre district. But now that 

 the Syndicate has allowed the concession to lapse, and has been 

 dissolved, the Brazilian proposals may again come up for con- 

 sideration, with the result of a new treaty being negotiated. 

 Interest in the development of the Acre is not confined to the 

 < intending republics, and outside influences may yet be exert- 

 e I to secure (or that region a free outlet through Brazil. Heie 

 I he government at Washington undoubtedly would be in a bet- 

 ter position to act than hitherto, when anv interference from 

 that source might have been regarded as support of a private 

 enterprise. 



* • * 



THE Bolivian Syndicate was formed to acquire, not only the 

 Acre concession, held by Mr. Frederick \V. Whitridge. of New 



York, but also the Caupolican con- 

 cession, granted to Sir Martin Con- 

 way, of London, and located in ter- 

 ritory which is Bolivian beyond 

 dispute. The Caupolican conces- 

 sion, before the Syndicate was dis- 

 solved, was transferred to The Bo- 

 livian Company, a West Virginia 

 corporation formed in 1901. with 

 an authorized capital of $1,000,000. 

 by practically the same financial 

 group. The exploitation of the 

 Caupolican district will proceed 

 without reference to any Brazilian 

 claim. The interest of the rubber 

 trade in this undertaking is not so 

 great, however, for while the dis- 

 trict contains much rubber, the de- 

 velopment of its mineral resources 

 is the chief purpose of the conces- 

 sionaires. The head offices of The 

 Bolivian Co. are at 59 Wall street, 

 New York. 



The secretary of state for Ama- 

 zonas. Brazil, Senhor Porfirio No- 

 gtieira. who was recently in New York on business connected 

 with the projected loan for his state, contributed to the New- 

 York Sun of March 8 a version of the status of the Acre terri- 

 tory, from which the following statements are condensed : 

 In the territory known by the name of the Acre there is not a 



It has been asserted in behalf of Bolivia that she possesses single aggregation of houses worthy of the nameof a village. Its 



historic rights to territory far notth of the treaty line. But 

 her object in respect to that treaty was twofold : To delimit the 

 boundary and to secure water rights to the seaboard through 

 Brazilian territory, her only natural outlet. In order to obtain 

 an open waterway the Bolivian commissioners, it is claimed, 

 were disposed to be liberal in the matter of land— then not re- 

 garded so valuable as now— and met the wishes of Brazilians in 



inhabitants, numbering about 3000, all of whom are Brazilians, 

 are scattered here and there in the seringaes, leagues apart 

 from each other. The former Bolivian custom houseof Puerto 

 Alonso was nothing more than a hut on the bank of the river 

 Acre. There is not now and there never was on the Acre a 

 single soldier of the Brazilian army, or of the forces of the state 

 of Amazonas. The revolution was accomplished by peasants 



respect to fixing the boundary, though Bolivia as yet remains who were not willing to recognize the dominion, provisional at 



without the coveted free navigation via the Amazon. best, of Bolivia over a territory which they had exploited and 



Recently, with a view to influencing Bolivia to rescind the always held as a portion of their Biazilian country. For more 



