BOLIVIA. 



Chile has offered instead to pay 6,000,000 bolivia- 

 nos in compensation. This proposition Bolivia 

 has refused to consider: 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. A rail- 

 road from Antofagasta enters Bolivian territory 

 .at Ascotan, and has been extended to Uyuni and 

 Oruro, with a branch to Huanchaca, the Bo- 

 livian sections having a length of nearly 500 

 miles. A railroad from La Paz to the Peru- 

 vian frontier, to connect with the Peruvian 

 line now half built from the port of Mollendo to 

 Lake Titicaca, is soon to be undertaken. A line 

 from Santa Cruz to the river Paraguay is con- 

 templated. Railroads from Oruro to Cocha- 

 bamba and from Challapata to Colquechaca have 

 been authorized, and a route has been examined 

 for an international railroad into the Argentine 

 Republic. 



The total length of telegraph-lines is 2,454 

 miles. The number of letters, postal cards, news- 

 papers, and other mail-matter carried in the 

 mails in 1900 was 2,222,176 in the internal and 

 725,240 in the international service. 



Boundary Dispute. In the extreme north of 

 Bolivia the valleys of the Acre and Yacu and of 

 the upper Purus and Jurua have been claimed 

 both by Bolivia and Brazil, and the Acre terri- 

 tory, which is one of the. richest rubber districts 

 remaining, has been disputed by Peru also. 

 American traders have long sent parties into this 

 region to gather rubber, which is taken in boats 

 down the Amazon, the only outlet. When none 

 of the governments which claim the territory 

 exercised any authority there adventurers from 

 various parts of the world attempted to set up 

 an independent republic there, intending to ex- 

 ploit its natural wealth for their private benefit. 

 They fell to quarreling among themselves, and 

 others came in to contend for the prize. One 

 dictator succeeded another until the interested 

 governments, each of which protested against 

 the recognition of the foreign usurpers, took 

 steps independently of each other to assert sov- 

 ereign rights and suppress the American and Eu- 

 ropean claimants. Bolivian, Brazilian, and Peru- 

 vian officials entered with a force of soldiers and 

 went through the form of assuming the adminis- 

 tration; but they did not stay. When two of 

 these forces came together, each disputed the 

 right of the other to be there, and once or twice 

 shots were fired. Whenever the Government 

 forces retired the foreigners again set up their 

 authority, and among them desperate conflicts 

 arose. The shipments of rubber from this vast 

 and wild country continued in spite of the occa- 

 sional interference of the white desperadoes and 

 of savage tribes. Men interested in the rubber 

 trade were involved in the scheme to set up an 

 independent jurisdiction. The chief object of the 

 men who proclaimed the republic of Acre was 

 to avoid paying 15 per cent, export duty which 

 Bolivia levies on rubber. Although some of them 

 were Brazilian citizens, the Government of Brazil 

 did not favor the erection on its border of an irre- 

 sponsible state of buccaneers whose treatment of 

 the Brazilian natives whom they took into Acre 

 to gather nibber was barbarous. The frontier be- 

 tween Brazil and Bolivia was submitted to arbi- 

 tration. The Brazilian claim to the Acre terri- 

 tory was rejected by the arbitrator. What the 

 rights of Peru were on these affluents of the 

 Amazon and the Andean plateau remained un- 

 decided. In 1902 an arbitration treaty was ar- 

 ranged with Peru. Bolivia had already for two 

 yoars or more exercised jurisdiction and main- 

 tained a custom-hoxise in Acre. The Acre terri- 

 tory, triangular in shape, is bounded on the 



north by the recently laid down frontier of Bra- 

 zil, on the southwest by the yet to be determined 

 Peruvian boundary, and on the southeast by a 

 line running from the source of the Aburia to the 

 M'adre de Dios. A Bolivian expedition made its 

 way with great difficulty, and not without con- 

 siderable fighting, over the Andes, down the 

 river Beni, up the Orton, across to the Acre, and 

 down that river to the Brazilian frontier, where 

 a custom-house was established and has since 

 been maintained and defended by a military 

 force, the expense of which is considerably great- 

 er than the revenue that can be collected. The 

 revenue was in fact not collected, for to do so 

 it is necessary to have a custom-house on each 

 river and watch every outlet. The only means 

 of communication with Bolivia is through 

 swamps and forests and high and difficult passes 

 over two mountain chains. Access from the At- 

 lantic, on the other hand, is practicable by way 

 of the -Amazon up the Acre and the other rivers 

 which traverse the territory, which are navigable 

 by light-draft steamers. The rubber exported 

 from the Acre and its affluents has reached 3,500 

 tons per annum, and from the other rivers 5,000 

 tons. Already three-quarters of the best Para 

 rubber is brought from this region, and the pro- 

 duction is increasing yearly. As soon as the 

 dispute with Brazil was settled by the award of 

 the Acre and Yacu valleys to Bolivia the Bolivi- 

 an Government was ready to deal with respon- 

 sible capitalists who would form a chartered 

 company to administer and police the territory 

 and collect the revenues, as well as to develop 

 and exploit its resources. A syndicate was formed 

 by Si,r Martin Conway and New York capitalists, 

 who obtained from the Government of Bolivia, 

 subject to confirmation by the Bolivian Congress, 

 two concessions comprising the whole of the ter- 

 ritory, about 120,000 square miles. The Acre 

 concession covers the northern region which was 

 in dispute between Bolivia and Brazil. The Cau- 

 polican concession entitles the company to take 

 up 15,000 square miles on the northeastern slope 

 of the Andes and the plain at its foot as far as 

 the junction of the Madeira river with the Beni. 

 This latter district is believed to be very rich in 

 minerals. Gold has been found in several places 

 in promising quantities, and coal and petroleum 

 are known to exist. This district Sir Martin 

 Conway had explored himself. There are india- 

 rubber forests on the mountain slopes and on the 

 plains which contain both the known species of 

 rubber-trees and are said to contain several 

 others. These forests belong to private owners, 

 who make little use of them. In the much more 

 extensive Acre concession the valleys are cov- 

 ered with rubber forests. In the Andes are rich 

 mineral deposits. On the slopes corn, potatoes, 

 and grapes thrive, and on the great plains coffee, 

 cacao, sugar-cane, coca, and vanilla, as well as 

 rubber, are produced. The eastern slope is salu- 

 brious and suitable for colonization by white 

 men. In the Acre concession the company as- 

 sumes the fiscal administration under the laws 

 of Bolivia and is to collect all customs and 

 taxes. It has the sole right of purchasing from 

 the Government at a stated price any rubber 

 lands or other valuable sites not already the 

 property of individuals. It has a monopoly of 

 the right of navigation on the rivers, save against 

 those' to whom the right has already been con- 

 ceded, and it receives all the mineral rights 

 within the territory. Its profits are for sixty 

 years to be free from all taxation, and it can 

 import anything free of duty. Of the taxes and 

 duties it collects it retains 40 per cent, and pays 



