April, The first of a series of economic surveys of the commercial areas of the world to be conducted as aids to American overseas commerce by Students of the School of Foreign Service. On April twenty-sixth nineteen hundred and twenty-one. Digitized for Microsoft Corporation by the Internet Archive in From University of California Libraries. May be used for non-commercial, personal, research, or educational purposes, or any fair use. May not be indexed in a commercial service.
I hand you herewith papers relating to the visit to Venezuela made by a group of eighteen students in the summer of These papers comprise a brief report of the trip, by Dr. Sherwell, who was in charge of the mission, some of the essays on the economic resources of Venezuela, prepared by the students, and, in the appendix, a translation of a notable address delivered by Dr.
I venture to refer briefly to each of these documents. Sherwell's report makes clear how great was the courtesy shown and how extensive were the facilities afforded to the Georgetown students by the official and academic authorities of Venezuela. I believe the University, and for that matter academic circles outside our own University in this country, must be grateful for the many attentions and unfailing interest manifested by the Venezuelan officials and teachers in the work of these students.
Sherwell's report likewise makes clear that the contact was a valuable one for the particular students who made the trip, and that they bore themselves well and creditably. All the more satisfaction may be derived from this fact inasmuch as the students selected might be fairly taken as a cross section of the student body in the School of Foreign Service,βand you are already aware how widely representative of the youth of our country that student body is. That these young men should have made a favorable impression in a rather long trip of this character when they were under the observation of a great number of persons, and often in situations calling for a demonstration of no inconsiderable poise and sense of the fitness of things, can not but enhance our satisfaction and our confidence not merely in the resourcefulness but in the trustworthiness of the men upon whom this country must depend in the future for the promotion of her trade and the dignified and active representation of her policies.
The address of Dr. Studies in the field of Political Science are not, to be sure, the primary object of students going abroad to survey the economic resources, the commercial usages, and the facilities for transportation and distribution of commodities in the countries which they visit. None the less, sustained contact with trained masters of political studies may at times be possible, and should in all cases be availed of in order to gain the valuable experience of hearing points of view on [Pg 12] matters of international policy developed in other countries and under conditions quite different from those obtaining at home.
