The following reports have not been received to date and are not included in this statement: Cebu, month of June. Siassi, months of January and June. Zamboanga, months of March, April, May and June. Respectfully submitted, WM. F. SPURGIN, Lieut. Colonel, 16th U. S. Infantry, Collector of Customs of the Islands Manila, P. I., August 14, 1900. APPENDIX EE. Manila, P. I., August 25, 1900. Proceedings of the Board of officers to revise the United States Customs Tariff and Regulations in the Philippine Islands, convened at Manila, P. I., June 18, 1900, pursuant to the following order: "OFFICE U. S. MILITARY GOVERNOR IN THE PHILIPPINES. Manila, P. I., June 9, 1900. GENERAL Orders No. 80. By direction of the War Department a board of officers to revise the U. S. Provisional Customs Tariff and Regulations in the Philippine Islands will convene at Manila, P. I., at 10 o'clock on Monday, June 18, 1900, or as soon thereafter as practicable. Detail for the Board: Lieutenant Colonel W. F. Spurgin, 16th U. S. Infantry; Captain Charles H. Marple, 40th Infantry, U. S. Volunteers. The Collector of Customs of the Islands and the collectors of the various ports of entry will furnish to said Board, upon its request, all data, statistics and information which may be required by them in the performance of the duty enjoined. Further instructions from the War Department will be hereafter communicated to the Board. BY COMMAND of Major General MacARTHUR: (Signed) E. H. CROWDER, Lieut. Colonel, 39th Infantry, U. S. V., Secretary." Pursuant to the foregoing order the Board convened at 10 a. m., June 18, at the office of the Collector of Customs of the Chief Port of the Islands. Present: Lieutenant Colonel W. F. Spurgin, 16th U. S. Infantry, Captain Charles H. Marple, 40th Infantry, U. S. Volunteers. Absent: Captain W. W. Wotherspoon, who remained at Iloilo in obedience to telegraphic order from the Military Governor postponing his departure therefrom until further orders. The Board, being informed by the Secretary to the Military Governor that telegraphic advices had been received from the War Department, dated Washington, D. C., June 8, 1900, to the effect that instructions would be sent therefrom that would govern in the work of revision, deemed it advisable to await arrival of these before entering upon the active work of such, and, after the preliminaries of organization, adjourned, to meet at the call of the President when these should have been received. Before such adjournment the Recorder was instructed to notify, in writing, the three Chambers of Commerce in Manila, the American, Manila and Spanish Chambers, respectively, of the appointment of the Board and its purpose and to request of these bodies, and through them the merchants comprising them, that the Board be favored, as early as possible, with such criticisms in writing upon the existing Customs Tariff and Regulations as would seem proper to be made and with specific and detailed suggestions concerning all changes, substitutions or amendments which it might be thought would tend to the improvement thereof. In reply thereto were received the communications that are hereto attached, marked "W." On July 13, 1900, in the belief that the instructions of the War Department, above referred to, must be near at hand, the Board again convened, all members being present. A room in the Intendencia Building was assigned to the Board, where the work of revising the existing Tariff and Customs Regulations was taken up, and where the Board has since been engaged in daily session. Notices of the location of the Board were immediately sent to the three Chambers of Commerce above named, again inviting the full expression of the views of these bodies and their individual members in all matters affecting the levying of duties upon imports and exports and the general administration of customs in the Philippines, either by writing or by oral statement before the Board at any time within its business hours, therein mentioned. In addition, the individual members of the Board, in numerous cases, personally called upon merchants and importers to request of them particular data in their possession, which was felt would be of assistance in the work of framing a just and equitable schedule of charges. The response on the part of the merchants and commercial bodies of Manila, to the repeated efforts of the Board to enlist their active interest and aid, has been disappointingly meagre. Criticism of a most general nature was freely forthcoming, but definite and tangible expressions or suggestions for the betterment or improvement of the conditions with which fault was so freely found, were correspondingly lacking. To say that there is not a merchant or importer in Manila, of respectable trade affiliations, who has not been advised of the desire of the Board to listen to all complaints and to receive all information that would tend to the improvement of the present system of tariff charges, is believed to be a conservative statement, and it is felt that wherever the system of charges and imposts, submitted with this report, may, upon actual application or upon special and particular analysis of the different sections, prove unequal or inadequate, the apathy shown by the merchants and importers in the matters directly affecting their own interests, will be largely to blame therefor. In the work of framing a satisfactory tariff, or of revising the present one, so as to provide an ample revenue for the expenses of the Government and, at the same time, enable merchandise to be imported and exported with profit to the merchant and producer, and without hardship to the consumer, the difficulties encountered have been numerous and serious. The Spanish administration of customs left behind it no system of records upon which reliance could be placed or that could be termed statistics, and no reliable estimate could be formed as to the income actually received from customs under Spanish rule. The conditions, under American occupation, have been continually changing and at no time constant. With the shifting of military operations and the opening of new ports, as additional territory was brought within the subjection of our arms, and with the commerce that keeps pace therewith, were introduced factors uncertain and abnormal upon which a conservative estimate as to the income of the future could scarcely be made. No budget or estimate of the expenses of the Government has been obtainable upon which the amount of customs that will be needed for the future can be estimated. The instructions from Washington, when received, conveyed no intimation as to whether the present receipts can be regarded as sufficient for these purposes, in conjunction with those that will be derived from direct taxation, as the system thereof is developed with the resumption of business and commerce in the interior of the islands, or whether expenses of the Government require an increase, substantial or otherwise, in the income at present derived from the customs charges of the islands. At the outset, too, the question arose as to whether there should be continued the system of specific duties that prevails in the present Tariff, or whether better results would follow the application of an ad valorem method as controlling in the United States Tariff. The present Tariff is essentially specific. Wherever an article of import can be referred to any of its, in many cases, faulty classifications, that classification fixes a certain specific charge. This, notwithstanding that the Tariff consists of a number of separate charges on each item of entry as, first: The duty itself upon the particular article levied according to quantity; then, in many cases, an additional charge called a |