the Brazilian representative and was approved by the Commission and by the General Conference of UNESCO at its First Session at Paris, November 19 to December 10, 1946.

A meeting was called at Belém in August 1947 at the invitation of the Government of Brazil to consider proposals for a comprehensive study of the Hylean Amazon Region. Recommendations are to be formulated regarding the establishment of the proposed International Institute of the Hylean Amazon for undertaking a longrange scientific operation in the area. It would include investigations in the zoological, meteorological, anthropological, and medical sciences and in questions relating to the maintenance of human life and the development of human society in tropical regions. These recommendations are to be presented to the Second General Conference of UNESCO scheduled to be held at Mexico City in November 1947.

Latin American Guggenheim fellows

Twenty-nine artists and scholars from nine Latin American countries and Puerto Rico have received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to carry on advanced work in the United States. Of the stipends granted, totalling $80,000, six went to Argentines, six to Brazilians, five to Mexicans, three to Colombians, three to Uruguayans, two to Venezuelans, and one each to citizens of Bolivia, Cuba, Paraguay, and Puerto Rico.

The fields of study range from pure science to painting, including such diverse projects as a comparison of the fossil flora and fauna of Colombia with those of Texas and California, and analyses of the influence of philosophic ideas in Spanish America during the wars of independ

ence. Averaging $2,750 each, the grants permit the fellows all or part of a year of uninterrupted pursuit of their specialties. Thus for the eighteenth year the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has given men and women of the highest ability an opportunity to further their work. Established by the late United States Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife as a memorial to their son, ther fellowships are open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States, of Canada, and of twelve Latin American republics.

Saturday half-holiday in Guatemala

Certain regulations concerning Saturday half-holidays in Guatemala have recently gone into effect.

Commercial establishments employing ten or more people must close at one on Saturday and remain closed until the following Monday. Commercial establishments are defined as those doing a retail business.

Liquor stores are required to suspend operations from one o'clock Saturday until seven the next morning, except when this period falls on a holiday; then special licenses will be issued. Bars are not subject to this ruling.

The regular 45-hour work week is to be distributed among the six working days so as to comply with the early closing, and almost all exempt establishments must pay overtime to those who work after one on Saturday. Police will close establishments which do not comply with the law, and the owners are subject to fines.

There are numerous exceptions to the law, including drug stores, gas stations, florist shops, grocery stores, soda fountains and lunch counters, bakeries and pastry shops, meat and fish markets, vegetable

nd fruit stores, dairies, and other estabshments essential to the welfare of the eople.

For those employees of non-exempt stablishments who work Saturday afteroon and are paid overtime, three hours ɔmpensatory leave is obligatory sometime uring the work week.

Fines for failure to comply with this law un from $10 to $500. Second offenders raw double fines. And those establishnents which were allowed to stay open ut did not give compensatory time off ose their right to do business on Saturday ifternoon.

We see by the papers that-

• Venezuela has a new constitution. Signed and promulgated on July 5, 1947, Venezuela's Independence Day, it is the fourth since the country broke away from Spain 136 years ago. (The first three were signed in 1811, 1908 and 1936.) The new charter is the result of six months' labor by the National Constituent Assembly. Its provisions will be dealt with in detail in a subsequent issue.

July 31, 1947, figures on the enrollment of veterans studying abroad under the GI Bill of Rights show that 365 of them are studying in 13 countries of Latin America. The number enrolled in each country follows: Mexico, 272; Cuba, 25; Guatemala, 15; Chile, 11; Peru, 9; Brazil, 8; Costa Rica, 8; Argentina, 5; El Salvador, 4; Uruguay, 4; Colombia, 2; Dominican Republic, 1; Honduras, 1.

• According to a census taken in Quito, Ecuador, in June 1947, the capital has 211,174 inhabitants, of whom 101,364 were males and 109,810 females.

• The Central University of Caracas, Venezuela, will have a new School of

Journalism. The government has appropriated 1,000,000 bolívars to cover the cost of a new building and courses for two years. At the invitation of the President of the University and the Venezuelan Association of Newspapermen, Dean Carl W. Ackerman, of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in . New York, has been in Caracas helping to establish the new school.

• The Bolivian Government has established within the Ministry of Agriculture an Office of Small Irrigation Works to attend to irrigation projects involving areas no larger than 1,250 acres. This office, at the request of agricultural communities and individual farmers, will make surveys and draw up plans for small-scale irrigation works and supply technical direction for their construction. Community irrigation projects will be financed by the Federal Government.

• With the July 15, 1945, sailing of the Trivia from New Orleans, the Chilean Line resumed peace-time operations from Gulf ports to Valparaíso and other South American West Coast ports. Service is maintained on monthly schedule by the Trivia and the Atomena, which make the New Orleans-Valparaíso run in about 19 days.

number of eminent Colombian writers and critics will serve on the jury of selection. • Under a recent Government decree, Peruvian school children will have to plant

and care for trees as a regular part of ther studies. Community authorities are select locations for the plantings ar finance the project.

MANUEL FERNÁNDEZ

SUPERVIELLE.

Cuban lawyer, judge, former Minister of the Treasury, and Mayor of Habana. Born September 23, 1894, and educated at the Colegio de la Salle, Instituto de la Habana, and University of Habana. He began his career as a lawyer in 1915; later became member of the House of Representatives and Minister of Finance in the first cabinet of present President Ramón Grau San Martín. Served as professor of Roman Law and Civil Law, Academia Privada de Derecho; treasurer, Academy of International and Comparative Law; secretary, Academy of Higher Studies in Law; dean of the Habana Bar for 7 years; and first president (1940-41) of the Inter-American Bar Association. In 1946 Dr. Fernández Supervielle was elected Mayor of Habana. Died May 4, 1947 at his home in Habana.

BASILIO JAFET.-Lebanese-Brazilian industrialist. Born in Shueir, Lebanon, in 1866. Went to Brazil at the age of 22. Founded, with his three brothers, the Jafet Textile Company in São Paulo. This firm grew to be one of the most powerful of its kind in all South America. and was an important factor in São Paulo's rise as an industrial city. Founded Syro-Lebanese Hospital and Patriotic

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League. Known for his fairness to his workers and for his charitable work. Died in São Paulo in May 1947 at the age of 80

JOSÉ LUIS TAMAYO.-Former President of Ecuador, ex-Cabinet Minister, lawyer. and writer. A leader of the Liberal party he was considered one of Ecuador's greatest statesmen. Born in 1859 in Guayaquil, where he received his law degree, he worked on local newspapers. and later practiced law until he was elected to Congress. Lived in Europe and the United States in 1893 and 1894. In 1924, at the end of his four-year presidential term, left politics to resume his law practice. Although not wealthy, he refused a Government pension voted him at the age of 70, declaring that the Government needed the money more than he did. Died on July 7, 1947 in Guayaquil.

DR. PEDRO LEÃO VELLOso.-Brazilian lawyer, writer, and diplomat. Born in Pindamonhagaba, São Paulo, January 1887. Spent most of his career in Brazilian diplomatic service. Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs 1944-1945. At time of his death, chief of his country's delega tion to the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly. Died in New York, January 16, 1947.