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Venezuela is a republic, governed by a congress of repre- 
sentatives from the United States of Venezuela. Repre- 
sentatives are of two orders, deputies and senators. Each 
state has its president and each town its magistrate. But 
the country is young and it is not until one gets away from 
the capital that one realizes how undeveloped the country 
really is. The smaller towns and villages consist of single- 
storeyed houses, the walls are mud plastered and the roofs 
thatched with palm leaves. There is a very elementary 
education given in the villages, but the Government is awake 
to the need for a more systematized scheriie for, apart from 
Caracas which has a university, the facilities are very meagre. 
As is usual in young countries there is much corruption in 
official circles and little security for life and property ; until 
quite recently the carrying of revolvers was quite the common 
thing. In spite of this, the people, whether of pure Spanish 
or of a mixed descent, have a natural courtesy and hospi- 
tality that is charming, and place their best at the disposal 
of the traveller. As the}' live in a primitive manner the 
traveller must be prepared at times to accept a rather rough 
monotonous diet. In many places wheaten bread is un- 
known and in its place, very insipid cakes of coarsely ground 
maize are used. Milk is often difficult to obtain, though 
the coffee is excellent. Where goat farming is carried on, 
as in the district round Coro, delicious goat milk and cheese 
can be had, while on the inland sugar farms the diet invariably 
consists of fowls with zams, boiled bananas, thin sheets of 
dry cassava cake, with crude brown candied sugar as a sweet. 
For a people whose tastes are so simple life is easy and com- 
fortable ; if they feel inclined to work they will and for fairly 
low wages ; but very few types of exertion are thought 
worth while, so long as they can obtain the simple neces- 
saries of life. 
Venezuela is waiting for foreign capital to come and 
organize things and to bring the mixed blessings of modern 
industrialism in exchange for their copper and petroleum. 
British companies are, to some extent, already dealing with 
cattle and petroleum, but during the next few years Euro- 
pean capital will be needed in Europe. It is to Venezuela’s 
interest to encourage her people to develop the natural 
resmxrces for themselves without awaiting the initiative of 
foreign capitalists. 
