COSTA I RICA 1075 



throughout the country, resulting in practically the whole of the river traffic being sus< 

 pended for several months. The British Minister (Mr. Strong) was unable to travel 

 up the Magdalena River to the capital, while the operations of the largest of the trans- 

 port undertakings, the Colombia Navigation Company and the Cartagena ^Colombia) 

 Railway Company, were Affected owing to the cessation of their traffics. The coffee 

 crop proved a partial failure, some 50 per cent being lost. 



Negotiations were subsequently reopened at Washington between the United 

 States, represented by Mr. Huntington Wilson, Assistant Secretary of State, and Co- 

 lombia, represented by Senor Don Julio Betancourt, Colombian Minister, for a settle- 

 ment of the outstanding disputes. At the same time there was manifested an agitation 

 among the prominent citizens of the Pacific provinces to force the Colombian Govern- 

 ment to settle the differences with the United States before the opening of the Panama 

 Canal, which would have an important . effect upon the development of the provinces 

 along the Pacific Coast, in which one-third of the inhabitants of the Republic reside. 

 In August 1912 the United States Vice-Consul, Mr. William B. Macmaster, was assas- 

 sinated in Bogota, after several fruitless attempts upon his life had been made. 



COSTA RICA 1 



Costa Rica has an area of 23,000 square miles, and the population according to the 

 most recent estimate is 379,550 (including about 4,000 Indians), giving an average of 

 16.5 inhabitants per square mile. The imports were valued at 1,630,500 and exports 

 1,728,901 in 1910. Imports from the United States in 1910-11 were valued at 

 $3,473,376 (U.S. currency) and exports to the United States at. $4,838,416; -in 1911-12, 

 imports at $3,647,187 and exports at $3,817,861. The revenue was estimated, accord- 

 ing to the budget of 1912-13, at 827,700, and the expenditure at 825,339. The total 

 public debt amounts to 6,185,234 (3,389,500 external and 2,795,734 internal). The 

 total mileage of railways is 427 and that of telegraph lines is 1472.7. The army has 

 a strength of 1,000 men. 



Adverse natural conditions materially militated against the prosperity of Costa Rica 

 in the early months of 1909. Disastrous storms, the failure of the crops, and stagnation 

 in commercial circles, combined to bring about severe economic depression. In this 

 year the total trade declined by about $3,500,000 (700,000). 



The Central American Court of Justice, sitting at Cartago, rendered in 1909 its first 

 decision in the settlement of Central- American questions. This tribunal had been 

 established through the action of the Peace Conference held in Washington at the end 

 of 1907, the Court being inaugurated in May 1908 in a special building provided by the 

 generosity of Mr. Andrew Carnegie at a cost of $100,000 (20,000). 



The unsettled political conditions of Nicaragua, in combination with those prevailing 

 in Guatemala and Honduras, were to some extent reflected in the internal affairs of 

 Costa Rica. In connection with the presidential elections in the month of September, 

 rioting occurred both in the capital of San Jose and other cities. The two candidates 

 were the retiring president, Senor Iglesias, and Dr. Ricardo Jimenez, president of the 

 Costa Rican Congress. The latter was elected to succeed Senor Cleto Gonzalez Viquez, 

 and assumed office on May 8, 1910. 



The financial conditions of the Republic continued difficult in 1910. Since 1901 

 there had been default upon the foreign loan amounting, with accumulated interest, to 

 approximately 2,593,000. In January 1911 the bondholders were compelled to accept 

 a very unsatisfactory compromise, which was denounced by Lord Avebury, the Chair- 

 man of the Bondholders Committee in London, as " dishonourable." An offer sub- 

 mitted by American bankers for settlement of the external debt had been rejected by 

 Congress in October 1909. Previous abortive efforts had been made in 1905 and 1908. 



Notwithstanding the difficulty experienced by foreign bondholders in obtaining any 

 better terms, the government was actually in a stronger financial position than had been 

 the case for several years. Considerable expansion in the revenues of the country had 



1 See E. B. vii, 219 et seq. 



