Correspondence

A LETTER FROM LIMA : PERU.

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Peru, where Signor Mussolini's Gospel of Work would have little acceptance, enjoys in common with most Latin: American countries an average of two public holidays a month. To this number has just been added "Road Day." three years ago there was not even a motor road connecting the capital, Lima, with Callao, a distance of

eight miles. President Leguia's administration has been admirable in this, that it has started a real road campaign, and, although graft takes a heavy toll of every kilometre, remarkable progress has been made in the last five years. Even so, there is not yet a single road in the modern sense leading out of Lima.

The technical difficulties of road-building in a country of

such varying physical features and magnificent distances are, of course, enormous. Eastward is the chain of the Cordilleras to be crossed at altitudes varying between 10,000 and•15,000 feet. On the farther side lie the steaming forests of -the Montana. Along the coast, port is separated from port by miles of sand-strewn pampas with no quarries upon which to draw for metal. Nevertheless; these pampas, where the sand is not too loose, make excellent natural roads, though not for the low-slung English car. Indeed, taking into consideration the imperfections of so many so-called " made " roads in various parts of the country, it is com- monly said that Nature is the best road-maker in Peru. - •

But whatever measure of success has already been

achieved is due primarily to the Indian. Road conscription has been in force since the communistic empire of the Incas. Nominally, every citizen between the ages of eightcen.and fifty is liable to serve for twenty-one days in the year on road- building. In actual practice the law is not applied in the principal cities or elsewhere, except to the Indian. The Quechua is the Gunga-Din of Peru. He is " our beloved Indian " in the public speeches of President Leguia ; but it bya case of " Lo, the poor Indian " when he is exploited by the rich feudal lords of vast landed estates and by the provincial authorities when they want to get a road built.

In addition to the roads projected or under actual con-

struction, a new route to the Orient of Peru is due to be opened this year by means of an air service between Lima and Iquitos, the Peruvian port on the Amazon. At the present time the journey has to be made by train and motor and mule and canoe and launch, in that order. It may take anything between three .and five weeks under circumstances of considerable discomfort and danger. With the opening of, an air route the time will be reduced to three or four days. The start by aeroplane will be made from San Ramon, in the Chanchamayo Valley on the east flank of the Andes, and the first stage will be to Puerto Bermudez, at the confluence of the Pachitea and Ucayali rivers: From that point a hydroplane service will operate to Iquitos. The service is to be operated by the Government, and the pilots will be members of the Peruvian military and naval air forces.

There is no hope, of course, that the service will pay.

It will only be possible to carry two passengers, and the cost of a two-day flight will be some fifty pound's, in addition to railway and motor-car expenses. But it • will- be an expeditious way of carrying the mails, and as an administrative measure it will bring the Government into closer touch with the region of the Amazonas. There is a political reason for this. The ties which bind the Eastern departments to the central Government are of the slightest, and complaints are made at times that Iquitos is left out of the good things of governmental revenues and governmental favours. Racially, too, the people of the Amazonian regions are as distinct from the coastlanders and the Indians of the Sierras as Papuans are from New Zealanders. A closer connexion with Lima is, therefore, in every way- desirable as a pre-.

caution against a separatist movement. .

Apart from this proposed air route to Iquitos, the success

of which is problematical, commercial and military aviation is at.a low ebb in this country. There are two civil aviators who, flying antiquated machines, pick up a living by carrying stray passengers along the coast and by making land surveys.

But there are no organized air routes as in Bolivia and in the Eastern republics. The Junkers and the Aero Lloyd are trying to obtain a concession for a coastal service to the - Northern ports ; and other enterprises would take the air if there were any encouragement. But even the visit of,

the Pan-American flyers last year, boosted as it was , by the Pan-American Union at Washington, aroused little interest. The Peruvian prefers bull-fights and fooiball. • Bull-fighting is still a popular vogue in Lima, where the old Viceregal ring at Acho is the finest in South America. But the aficion for the plaza de toros is waging a losing battle with the present " craze "—there is no other word - for it—for " futbol." Soccer has caught on in Lima to an amazing degree. Efforts to naturalize baseball have proved a hopeless failure, but the English game has risen to the heights of a cult which threatens to oust every other form of popular sport. On Sundays every piece of waste ground is devoted to a furious game ; in the evenings every side, street is a football field where small boys play with one eye on the ball and the other on the police. To the record of matches more space is devoted than to, the chronic wail over the woes of Tacna and Arica.

Compared with the austere game as played in England. and Scotland, South American football has its exotic features., No match, even of the most minor importance, begins without an exchange of bouquets of flowers and affectionate abrazos between the rival captains. But from the moment that the ball is set in motion there is no further waste of affection. The incessant whistle of the referee vies with the mews of the spectators ; and if little actual blood is shed, it is not for want of verbal encouragement. As often as not the game ends in the premature withdrawal of the losing side. The Latin American is a poor loser. Nevertheless, in spite of the flagrant partisanship of the onlookers and the indifferent' sportsmanship of the players, football has proved a godsend to Peru. It has driven the young men from the drinking booths and the gambling dens to fight their differences in the open air and under some form of discipline. So, though British trade be sadly on the wane, we may take pride in the fact that we are contributing our share to the making of a race.

Lima's enthusiasm for football is receiving a magnificent fillip at the moment. The South American championships are being played here ; and although Chile has not been allowed to participate for fear of political demonstrations, the representatives of the Argentine and of Uruguay are showing the local public how the game should be- played- and the right spirit which should animate it. With so much football in the air, politics take a second place. While Chile continues to proclaim that she is sick and tired of an arbitra- tion which has arbitrated nothing, Peru continues to play the part of Little Jack Homer. Although President Legufa has not yet pulled out the fat plum of Tacna and Arica, he proclaims to all the world in every speech " What a good fioy am I I " Unfortunately, the head-master at Washingtcin- wants to reward both the good boy and the bad boy alike and tlfat is why the decision is so long in coming.—I am;