1939: Guatemala

President Jorge Ubico, on Feb. 4, celebrated the eighth anniversary of his accession as Guatemala's constitutional dictator. The most drastic restrictions on Fascist and Nazi propaganda activities in all Latin America were provided by presidential decree, issued in May, prohibiting foreign political organizations and not exempting foreign diplomats from the ban. Nazi propaganda through the local German schools has also been checked. Guatemala has the largest German colony in Central America, and the Third Reich has been very active in developing trade relations with the Republic, although these efforts have left Germany far behind the United States, and have resulted in an unfavorable trade balance of almost $3,500,000 for Guatemala. On the other hand, Guatemalan-American trade, export and import, has risen steadily from $9,000,000 in 1934 to nearly $19,000,000 last year, with a favorable balance for Guatemala at the end of 1938 of $3,850,000. The United States is the Republic's best customer for coffee, which represents 80 per cent of Guatemala's exports, and also for bananas and chicle.

Treasury representatives of the twenty-one American republics met in Guatemala in Nov. 14-21, to consider trade and monetary questions. Although Mexico proposed the creation of a central bank for all the Americas, to stabilize currencies through credit extensions, and in a resolution the monetary committee expressed its unanimous agreement on the necessity for 'a stabilization of the different currencies which would make exchange possible and regularize the economies of the different countries,' the net result of the conference was the adoption of an expression of hope for such stabilization and for an improvement in inter-American trade.