Death of

President Berreta

LATE in the evening of August 2, 1947, a tightly-packed crowd of mourning Uruguayans moved slowly through the streets. of Montevideo bearing the coffin of their beloved President, Dr. Tomás Berreta. They had refused to allow it to be placed in a state coach at the Italian Hospital, where their Chief Executive had died following an emergency operation, and carried it themselves to his residence. For 71-year-old Tomás Berreta had been one of the most popular public figures in Uruguay.

In one of his last addresses, he spoke eloquently of the vital urge of the Uruguayan social system which, developing in a climate of freedom, impels the citizen, no matter what his station in life, to higher and higher standards of living.

The Uruguayan Congress decreed national mourning and most of the usual Sunday activities were suspended in memory of the President who had taken office only five months before. A state funeral took place on August 4. Burial, according to Dr. Berreta's last wish, was in his birthplace, near Villa La Paz in the Department of Canelones.

The recent Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security in Brazil paid tribute to the memory of Presidents Roosevelt and Berreta, saying of the latter that he "sym

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bolized a faithful expression of the spirit of the River Plate, devoted to democracy and defender of its principles."

Vice-President Luis Batlle Berres, who had already assumed the duties of President, will finish out the four-year term. Congress will elect two Vice-Presidents, one of whom would succeed Senor Batlle Berres in the event of his resignation or death.

President Batlle Berres will continue the same foreign and domestic policy, including close friendship with the United States. Dr. Berreta made a visit to this country in February of this year. (See BULLETIN, July 1947, p. 377.)

ON July 2, 1947, Dr. Guillermo Enciso presented to President Truman his credentials as Ambassador from Paraguay to the United States. Replacing Dr. Juan B. Ayala, who had served since July of last year, Dr. Enciso also represents his country on the Governing Board of the Pan American Union.

The new Paraguayan Ambassador is a distinguished writer, lawyer, and educator. Born in Ypané, near Asunción, on September 6, 1899, he is the son of Guillermo Enciso, a veteran of the War of 1864-70, and of María Inés Velloso de Enciso. After receiving his primary and secondary schooling in the capital, Dr. Enciso attended the University of Madrid, Spain, where he graduated in law and social science. He studied too in the School of Philosophy there, later turning to the study of psychology.

For the past eighteen years Dr. Enciso has been a member of the psychology department in the Asunción Normal School for Men. From 1932 to 1934 he was also an administrative official in the Chaco War and then Director General of Schools and Chairman of the National Board of Education, posts he held until 1936. From July 1946 until the time of his appointment as Ambassador, he was a member of President Higinio Morínigo's cabinet-as Minister of Education until January 1947, then as Minister of Economy.

Moreover, Dr. Enciso has had a long and active journalistic career. He was editor of the magazine Guaranía in 1936

and of Cultura from 1943 to 1947. In 1937-38 and 1939-40 he was editor of the daily Patria, an organ of the National Republican Party which was closed by the then government in 1937 and again in 1940. In addition he has written monographs and essays on social psychology and politics, and has drafted an organic charter of primary education.

Dr. Enciso has also been active in politics. In 1936 he joined the National Republican Association (the Colorado Party) and has been a member of its executive board since 1938. Several times from 1936 to 1941 he was deported or imprisoned for his newspaper and political activities. But

since July 1946 he has collaborated as a representative of his party in the Government of General Morínigo under a broad program.

Dr. Enciso married Isabel Planás; they

have six children, four sons and two daughters. He made his first trip to 1, Washington in 1944, when he visited the United States at the invitation of the Department of State.

THE Secretary of State announced the appointment effective August 11, 1947 of the Honorable William Dawson as Special Representative of the United States, with the rank of Ambassador, on the Governing Board of the Pan American Union. Mr. Dawson, who succeeds the Honorable Spruille Braden in this capacity, has spent twenty years in Spanish America and is well known for his comprehensive Pan American outlook.

The appointment of Mr. Dawson marks a new development in this Government's representation on the Governing Board of the Union, in that he will be the first official to assume this post as a full-time responsibility. Until November 1945, the United States was represented on the Board by the Secretary of State. Thereafter it was represented by the Assistant Secretary of State for American Republics Affairs. The appointment now of an ad hoc representative with the rank of Ambassador is in accordance with conclusions reached by the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace, held at Mexico City in 1945.

While the Governments of the American republics have not considered the ap

Harris and Ewing

pointment of ad hoc representatives mandatory, the Department of State believed the appointment advisable in the interests of the United States policy of actively supporting the Inter-American System and contributing constructively to its develop

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nent, and in view of the constantly enlargng scope of inter-American cooperation.

It was nearly forty years ago that Mr. Dawson began the distinguished eareer from which he has garnered the rich experience fitting him so admirably for his present position. He entered the Consular Service in March 1908, serving successively as Vice Consul at St. Petersburg, Barcelona, and Frankfurt am Main and as Consul at Rosario, Montevideo, Danzig, and Munich. Then he became inspector of consular offices in South and Central America (1922-24). In October 1924 he was assigned to the Department of State, where he was a member of the Executive Committee of Foreign Service Personnel and Chief Instructor of the Foreign Service School. After being Consul General at Mexico for almost two years, he went in May 1930 to Ecuador as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. At the end of 1934 he was transferred to Colombia in the same capacity, and about three years later to Uruguay. He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Panama in March 1939, and in February 1941 he returned to Uruguay, likewise as Ambassador. After

leaving this post in August 1946, he retired from the Foreign Service at the end of the year.

Mr. Dawson, who acted as a political adviser on the United States delegation to the recent Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security, has taken part in other important deliberations, for he was adviser to the American delegation of the Second Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics at Habana in 1940, and Political Adviser to the United States Delegation to the First Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1946, and to the Special Session of the General Assembly on Palestine in April 1947.

He also served as special representative of the President with rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the inauguration of the President of Peru, December 1939, and of the President of Ecuador, September 1940.

Mr. Dawson was born at St. Paul, Minnesota on August 11, 1885. He received his B. A. from the University of Minnesota in 1906 and attended the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques two years.

EVER since its discovery in 1502, the Isthmus of Panama has beckoned to the adventurous. Men of all races and tongues have met and mingled here to create one of the world's most cosmopolitan nations. The modern visitor will find it a place well worth seeing, for Panama is a strange land of contrasts where lovely national costumes and dances, fine climate, and exotic scenery are to be found as a backdrop for a fantastically busy commercial life. Really to know the Isthmus, the traveler must become acquainted with two separate entities: The Republic of Panama and the Panama Canal Zone.

The Panama Canal Zone is a strip of territory stretching from the Caribbean Sea on the north to the Pacific Ocean on the south and bisecting the Republic of Panama into roughly equal sections.

In width, the Canal Zone extends five miles from either bank of the Panama Canal. It is leased to the United States by the Republic of Panama for the express purpose of the maintenance, operation, and defense of the Panama Canal. The Zone is sovereign territory of the Republic of Panama but is under the administration and jurisdiction of the United States. Here Uncle Sam is "the butcher, the baker, and candlestick-maker" as well as the employer of every one. For under the treaty existing between Panama and the United States, no one may work, live, or buy in the Canal Zone unless he is employed directly or indirectly by Uncle Sam.

The tourist from the United States will find the Canal Zone a source of pride and of interest, for here man's intelligence and