December i, 1903-] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



73 



this very fact should prevent the complete discouragement 

 of the Ceylon rubber planters at the first indication of any 

 troubles with their trees. 



THE ACRE SETTLEMENT. 



"FHE effective protest made by the Brazilian govern- 

 *■ ment against the terms of the "Acre concession" 

 granted by Bolivia to the Bolivian Syndicate, the details 

 of which we printed in April last, was followed by diplo- 

 matic negotiations between the two republics, the result 

 of which already is a treaty about to be signed, and which, 

 on its face, would appear likely to prove mutually advan- 

 tageous. Brazil will have more territory and more rev- 

 enue, and Bolivia has in prospect the better development 

 of the territory left to her. 



Bolivia, it is true, quits all claim to the greater part ot 

 the disputed Acre district, an area of about 66,000 square 

 miles, generally regarded as the richest rubber district in 

 the world, and having other resources worth considering. 

 But this territory, on account of its remoteness from the 

 seat of government and the difficulties of communication, 

 had never been administered with success by Bolivia, while 

 capital was lacking in the country for its commercial de- 

 velopment. When an attempt was made, a year or two 

 ago, to induce the investment of foreign capital on a large 

 scale, the opposition of Brazil, in refusing transit through 

 her territory, completely blocked the only outlet to the 

 sea, thus rendering the Acre grant of little value. 



The fact is that the contention of the Brazilians that the 

 Acre district belongs naturally to their country has some 

 foundation. It is accessible only by means of water 

 courses which flow through Brazil into the Amazon, being 

 thus only an extension of the Amazon watershed. Be- 

 sides, such population as exists in the territory, apart from 

 the Indians, consists mainly of Brazilians who have ven- 

 tured there in quest of rubber, without protection or en- 

 couragement from Bolivia. Any attempt of Bolivia to ex- 

 tend its authority over these people was resented by them, 

 while Brazil held that her citizens on the Acre had ac- 

 quired rights by the mere act of settlement in hitherto un- 

 occupied territory. 



Bolivia had, however, certain rights under old treaties, 

 though these were capable of different constructions, and 

 in consideration of these Brazil agrees to pay a cash in- 

 demnity, to grant perpetual free transit through her terri- 

 tory, and, what promises to be of most importance, to 

 construct a railway around the obstructions in the Ma- 

 deira, the most important of Bolivia's natural outlets. 

 The extensive system of rivers, draining a much larger 

 portion of Bolivia than the whole Acre region, and a por- 

 tion which has been developed to a greater extent, con- 

 verges to form the Madeira, which in turn discharges into 

 the Amazon. But for a series of formidable cataracts in 

 the Madeira, Bolivia would have a system of waterways 

 for internal communication such as is not surpassed in any 

 other country, the whole connecting with the seaboard. 

 The proposal to build a railway around the falls — a dis- 

 tance of 200 miles or more — is not new, but the expense 



involved in a country without capital and where much 

 time must elapse before such an undertaking could become 

 commercially profitable, have prevented such an under- 

 taking from being carried out. 



If the Brazilian part of the new agreement is carried out 

 in good faith, within a reasonable time, Bolivia as a whole 

 should be in a better condition than if the plans of the Bo- 

 livian Syndicate had been left undisturbed, since the pro- 

 posed field of operation of the latter was confined to the 

 single territory of the Acre, without regard to developing 

 the districts watered by the sources of the Madeira. An- 

 other point is that by the cession of her Acre territory, 

 Bolivia is relieved from a possible boundary dispute with 

 Peru. 



The interest of the outside world in the whole situation 

 relates to the development of the rubber resources in- 

 volved. While there were hopes that, under a liberal and 

 progressive policy such as the Bolivian Syndicate pro- 

 posed, the rubber fields of the Acre would be opened much 

 more extensively, it must be considered that the world's 

 ever growing demand for rubber will cause it to be mar- 

 keted in some manner, under whatever jurisdiction, and 

 the removal of the friction between the two nationalities 

 on the Acre will doubtless do much to stimulate rubber 

 working there. In 1898 the official estimate of the rubber 

 output from the Acre was more than 2000 tons ; in 1900, 

 owing to political troubles, it was only about 800 tons. In 

 1901 there was a heavy increase, followed in the next year 

 by more troubles and the closing of the rivers. Peace on 

 the Acre, therefore, may be expected to result in a perma- 

 nently large rubber yield. 



As for the regions of the Bcni and Madre de Dios, con- 

 necting with the Madeira, the high cost of transport over 

 the latter river has made it preferable to ship such rubber 

 as has been collected there over the mountains to the Pa- 

 cific. With the Madeira opened to commerce by means of 

 a railway, there is reason to believe that such development 

 might follow there as in the almost identical case of the 

 Congo. Before the construction of the railway first sug- 

 gested by Stanley, all traffic with what is now the Congo 

 Free State was conducted by means of porterage, so that 

 it was estimated that five years were required for a piece 

 of cloth to find its way from the seaboard to regions which, 

 with the help of about 200 miles of railway, are now reach- 

 ed in two or three weeks. The building up of a trade in 

 Congo rubber of millions yearly has been due almost en- 

 tirely to this little railway. The Bolivian rubber fields 

 which the Madeira railway would open up are richer than 

 anything in Africa, and the trees may be regarded as per- 

 manent, which is not true of the Congo rubber. 



What assurance Brazil can give of building the promised 

 railway is another matter. The cash indemnity promised 

 to Bolivia should be easily arranged, by pledging the ex- 

 port duties on rubber from the Acre, which now becomes 

 a Brazilian asset. But the relation of the government to 

 the projected Madeira railway of twenty years ago, work 

 on which was actually begun, under a guarantee of the 

 public credit, must not be repeated if a railway is wanted 

 now. And the history of the little street railway at Manaos, 



