Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1116

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1064
LATVIA.

Libau (90,744), Mitau (46,860), Windau, Wenden, Wolmar, Walk, Daugavpils (Dvinsk).

The census taken on June 15, 1920, showed a population of 1,503,193 in Latvia. Of these 1,416,090 were Latvian citizens, and 87,103 foreigners. Of the Latvian citizens 80.41 per cent. were Letts, 8.86 per cent. Russians, 4.29 per cent. Jews, 3.23 per cent. Germans, 2.19 per cent. Poles, 0.52 per cent. Lithuanians, 0.25 per cent. Esthonians, and 0.25 per cent. other nationalities.

Religion and Instruction.—The majority of the population in Latvia is Protestant, but in Latgale and one district of Courland there are also many Roman Catholics, while in Riga, Windau and south-east of Livonia there are about 200,000 Greek Orthodox Letts. Jews form about 4.29 per cent. of the population. According to a Draft Bill to be presented to the Constituent Assembly there is to be no State Church.

Before the war there were 98 secondary schools in Latvia with 22,600 pupils, or 1 secondary school for every 26,000 inhabitants. The percentage of illiterates, including children under the age of ten years, is 21.5.

Before the war the University of Dorpat served the whole of the former Baltic provinces of Russia, and as Dorpat became an Esthonian institution, the Riga Polytechnic was in 1919 raised to be the Latvian University. The number of students is over 3,000. A Musical Academy has also been reopened in Riga.

Finance.—The Budget for the financial year ending March 31, 1921, is as follows (in millions of Latvian roubles):—

Revenue
Ordinary
Direct taxes 81
Indirect taxes 90
Duties 27
State lands and forests 658
State enterprises 851
Monopolies 1,552
State Banking operations 198
3,457
Extraordinary
Consolidated State loans 147
Issue of paper money 667
Prospective internal loans 245
1,059
Grand Total 4,516
Expenditure
Ordinary Extra-
ordinary
Total
Constituent Assembly 8 8
Cabinet of Ministers 5 7 12
Ministry of
Foreign Affairs 27 10 37
Justice 28 28
Interior 56 14 70
Public Education 39 39
Finance 122 81 153
Agriculture 188 221 409
Trade and Industry 63 8 71
Supplies 767 83 850
Ways of Communication 332 47 429
Labour 10 10
National Defence 44 44
State Control 5 5
State Credits 110 318 428
Increase of salaries to
servants of state
390 390
Unforeseen expenditure 100 100
Loan to the town of Walk 50 50
Total 2,344 789 3,133
Army 1,888 1,383
Grand Total 2,344 2,172 4,516

The National Debt of Latvia is as follows:—To United States of America, for the revictualling of the indigent population in 1919, repayable in 1921