HONDURAS

a republic of central america and an original member of the league of nations. on nov. 15 1922 honduras notified the league of its intention to withdraw because of the onerous annual contribution. the area is estimated at 36,000 square miles. the population in 1914 was estimated at 562,000; official figures gave the population in 1923 as 773,408. the capital, tegucigalpa, had an estimated population in 1923 of 40,000; the population of la esperanza was 11,453; and that of santa rosa 10,574. the inhabitants are mostly indians and mixed races: there are a few spaniards and a large proportion of negroes. honduras broke off diplomatic relations with germany on may 17 1917, and on july rg 1918 war was formally de- clared. the constitution of honduras was remodelled and pro- claimed in a new charter on oct. 3 1924, which gave the legisla- tive power to a congress of 43 deputies in the ratio of one member for every 15,000 inhabitants. 1. political history in 1910 miguel r. davila (the creature of president zelava of nicaragua), who was elected president of honduras for four years in 1906, was eliminated in a rapid campaign by manuel bonilla, the former president. dr. francisco bertrand, who had been cho- sen provisional president at a peace conference brought about by the united states, served as vice-president until the death of bon- illa in 1913, when he succeeded to the presidency and was elected to a second term of office in r9o1§5. in the campaign of i919 a liberal revolt forced bertrand to resign office and flee the coun- try. gen. lepez gutierrez, who led the revolt, caused himself to be declared dictator, and was elected president in october. an attempt to overthrow the president was made by revolu- tionists from nicaragua in aug. 1922; and when, in may 1923, war material of the 1922 movement was discovered near the boundary, new civil disturbances were foreseen. by june many of the citizens had been driven into exile by the warring factions. further violence marked the presidential campaign in oct. when gen. tiburcio carias, a conservative, was opposed to two liberal candidates. the returns of the election indicated that carias was the popular choice, although he was a confirmed revolution- ist and opposed by the government. early in 1924 conflicts be- tween the three presidential candidates, dr. arias, dr. bonilla and general carias, caused american casualties, and marines were sent to the nicaraguan boundary and to tegucigalpa. in april 19624 mr. sumner welles was sent by presiclent coolidge to ar- range 2 conference between the contestants and the neighbouring republics at amapala. the conference was successful, and gen. vicente tosta was elected president with the moral support of the united states, superseding gen. fausto davila, the provi- sional president. at the beginning of july, as no arrangement could be made re- garding the future president, serious disaffection was manifested and political disturbances again broke out. both the political lead- ers and the revolutionists accepted dr. jos¢ maria cases and ramen alcero vastro as president and vice-president respective- ly. the election at which a successor to provisional president tosta was to be chosen was postponed from nov. 25 to dec. 28- 30. the elections were held on the postponed date without any disorder, and dr. miguel paz baraona was elected president, with presentacien quesada as vice-president. the new president was inaugurated on feb. 1 1925. in march diplomatic relations with the united states, which had been severed in feb. 1924 were resumed. in 1925 political disturbances were recurrent: tegucigalpa was held in a state of siege in may by revolutionists, and in the west gen. gregorio terrera had been actively in re- bellion since february. nicaraguan and honduran oflicials pre- vented revolutionists from nicaragua entering the country. mar- tial law prevailed. in aug. general tosta, as minister of war and marine, announced at tegucigalpa that peace had once more been restored. ilonduras ratified the first three of the washing- ton conventions of 1922-3, and the 13th, providing for interna- tional commissions of inquiry (see central american union). in aug. 1925 eight of the agreements were awaiting the final approval of the republic. honduras defence.—military service is compulsory for all citizens of honduras on attaining the age of 21. under the convention signed at washington on feb. 7 1923 the standing army of the re- public was limited to 2,500. a congressional decree of april 9 1923 fixed the strength of the regular army at 3,036 of all ranks. education.—primary education, which is secular, is free and compulsory from seven to 15 years of age. the number of chil- dren who do not receive instruction is high, estimated at 57%. of 79,199 children of school age in 1922 it was estimated that 32,076 attended school. in 1922 there were 850 public schools with 1,127 teachers. there were five public secondary schools and four training colleges. the national university at teguci- galpa was staffed in 1922 with 36 professors and attended by 107 students. military and aviation schools have been established at the capital, and a school of jurisprudence at comayagua. the government offers two exchange scholarships with the united states. expenditure on education in 1919 was 384,980 pesos. ii. financial and economic history finance.—the budget of 1923-4 was adopted by congress as the budget for 1924-5 owing to political disturbances in 1924. revenue and expenditure were estimated to balance at 9,204,244 silver pesos; the budget for 1925-6 was estimated at 10,832,439 pesos. the fiscal years 1914-5 to 1920-1 showed a deficit; sur- pluses occurred in the years 1921-2 to 1924-5. recent political warfare has, however, eliminated all surpluses. military expend- iture was the largest item in the budget, constituting in the fis- cal year 1920-1 45% ofall government expenditure. the foreign debt, as reported by the corporation of foreign bondholders, amounted in oct. 1924 to £29,114,775. the contract for the ad- justment of the external debt was approved by the council of bondholders and forwarded to the national congress for sanc- tion. this ratification had not been given by feb. 1926. the basis of the arrangement took the sum of £452,000 as the repre- sentative value of the external debt incurred in the wars of 1867, 1869 and 1870, and interest on this sum at 8-86 % was allowed for the period of the new agreement. the total payment was to consist of £1,200,000 in semi-annual instalments of £20,000 for 30 years. production and industry.— business prosperity was depressed in 1923 and 1924 by wars. in the early part of 1925 complete stagnation followed bad political conditions, banditry on the frontiers and floods in the fruit districts. the principal culture is that of bananas and coconuts. in 1920 the export of bananas was 11,524,149 bunches; in 1923 the exports were 12,520,495. coconuts dropped from 12,647,508 in 1920 to 8,360,720 in 1922. the 1924 sugar production in the puerto cortes district, 30,532,- 950 lb., was twice that of 1923 and four times that of 1922. the prospect was that the 1925 production would show a further in- crease. silver production increased in 1924, when more than 2,000,000 oz. were produced. bananas rank first in order of im- portance amongst the exports, anc next in order are sugar, silver, coconuts, hides, cattle, gold. imports, in order of importance, are manufactured products, foodstuffs, raw materials and lumber. the united states has 90% of the trade. the chief figures for trade totals of three years were:— 1924 1925 all countries imports exports 12,752,761 11,983,051 [1,137,917 7,897,046 united kingdom imports 401,218 658,320 295,921 203,888 exports germany imports exports 308,197 28,170 198,792 10,485 united states imports exports 9,783,811 7,186,045 10,2§2,257 11,072,463 communications.—the national railway of 66 m., which was taken over by the government in 1912, was in 1920 placed in the honduras—hongkong control of the compafifa agricola, which in 1924 was reconsti- tuted as the cortes development company. the line has been overhauled to meet the demands for transporting the banana crops. four other railroads are owned by fruit companies. in 1924 the mileage of the railways was 934. ‘telegraph lines in 1922 totalled 4,662 and telephone lines 873 miles. 3lbliography.——bulletins of the bureau of the american republics (washington, monthly, 1893, etc.); d. g. munro, the five repub- lics of central america (carnegie endowment for international peace, div. of economics and history, washington, 1915, etc.); r. e. duran, governantes de itonduras (tegucigalpa, 1919); e. martinez l6epez, geografia de honduras (tegucigalpa, 1919); hzs- toria de honduras (tegucigalpa, 1919); l. e. elliott, central america (1924); w. s. robertson, history of the latin-american nations (1925). see also department of overseas trade, reporis on the economic and financial conditions in ionduras. 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