protest in writing with the collector setting forth distinctly and specifically, and in respect to each entry, payment, claim, or decision, the reasons for the objection thereto, and stating how the merchandise should have been classified, or what drawback should have been paid, or what charges or exaction should have been made, or why the merchandise should not have been excluded from entry or delivery. If the merchandise was entered for consumption such protest shall be deemed to be finally waived and abandoned unless, within thirty days from the date of the filing thereof, the full amount of liquidated duties shall be paid.

SEC. 528. SAME.-Upon the filing of such protest and payment of duties and other charges the collector shall within sixty days thereafter review his decision, and may modify the same in whole or in part and thereafter refund any duties, charge, or exaction found to have been collected in excess, or pay any drawback found due, of which notice shall be given as in the case of the original liquidation, and against which protest may be filed within the same time and in the same manner and under the same conditions as against the original liquidation or decision. If the collector shall, upon such review, affirm his original decision, or, upon the filing of a protest against his modification of any decision, the collector shall forthwith transmit the invoice and entry, and all the papers and exhibits connected therewith, to the Board of General Appraisers for due assignment and determination, as provided by law. Such determination shall be final and conclusive upon all persons, and the papers transmitted shall be returned, with the decision thereon, to the collector of customs, who shall take action accordingly, except in cases in which an appeal shall be filed in the United States Court of Customs Appeal within the time and in the manner provided by law.

SEC. 529. APPEAL OR PROTEST BY AMERICAN PRODUCERS.Whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of a board of three General Appraisers that it is impracticable for a manufacturer or producer in the United States to make, in his own name, or by agent, an importation of merchandise for the purpose of having determined the dutiable value or classification thereof, such manufacturer or producer shall have the right to appear and to be heard as a party in any case involving the disputed question of fact or law; or, in the absence of such a case, the manufacturer or producer, or the Assistant Attorney General in charge of customs litigation for the Government, may state in a written notice to the appraiser or the collector what he claims to be the proper value or classification, as the case may be, of such merchandise, and if the appraiser or the collector shall not accept such valuation or classification as correct, such manufacturer, producer, or Assistant Attorney General shall have the right to appeal for reappraisement or to make a protest, and to be heard as a party, the same as the importer would have, in any subsequent appraisal or classification involving the same question of fact or law. No manufacturer or producer shall have the right to inspect any documents or papers disclosing any information which the General Appraiser or the board of three General Appraisers shall deem improper to be disclosed to him. In every such proceeding the importer or his agent shall be notified by the manufacturer, producer, or Assistant Attorney General, whichever is the moving party, of his

intention to appear and shall be apprised of all hearings in accordance with the rules of procedure.

SEC. 530. FRIVOLOUS PROTEST OR APPEAL.-Upon motion of the counsel for the Government, it shall be the duty of the Board of General Appraisers to decide whether any appeal for reappraisement or protest filed under the provisions of section 509 or 527 of this Act is frivolous, and if said board shall so decide, a penalty of not less. than $5 nor more than $250 shall be assessed against the person filing such appeal for reappraisement or protest: Provided, That all appeals for reappraisement or protests filed by the same person and raising the same issue shall, if held frivolous by said board, be consolidated and deemed one proceeding for the purpose of imposing the penalty provided in this section: Provided further, That the person against whom such penalty is assessed may have a review by the Court of Customs Appeals of the decision of said board by filing an appeal in said court within the time and in the manner provided by section 198 of an Act entitled "An Act to codify, revise, and amend the laws relating to the judiciary," approved March 3,

1911.

SEC. 531. BOARD OF GENERAL APPRAISERS.-The Board of General Appraisers shall consist of nine members as now constituted, and all vacancies in said board shall be filled by appointment by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, not more than five of whom shall be appointed from the same political party and each of whom shall receive a salary of $9,000 a year. They shall not engage in any other business, vocation, or employment, and shall hold their office during good behavior, but may, after due hearing, be removed by the President for the following causes and no other: Neglect of duty, malfeasance in office, or inefficiency. The office of said board shall be at the port of New York, and the board and each member thereof shall have and possess all the powers of a district court of the United States for preserving order, compelling the attendance of witnesses, the production of evidence, and in punishing for contempt. Said board shall have power to establish from time to time such rules of evidence, practice, and procedure, not inconsistent with law, as may be deemed necessary for the conduct of its proceedings, in securing uniformity in its decisions and in the proceedings and decisions of the members thereof, and for the production, care, and custody of samples and of the records of said board. One of the members of said board designated for that purpose by the President of the United States shall act as president of the Board of General Appraisers, and in his absence the member of the board then present who is senior as to the date of his commission shall act as president. The president of the board, or the acting president in his absence, shall have control of the fiscal affairs and of the clerical force of the board, making all recommendations for appointment, promotions, or otherwise affecting such clerical force; he may at any time before trial, under the rules of the said board, assign or reassign any case for hearing or determination, or both, and shall designate a general appraiser or board of three general appraisers and such clerical assistants as may be necessary to proceed to any port within the jurisdiction of the United States for the purpose of hearing or of hearing and determining cases assigned for hearing at such port, and shall cause to be prepared and promulgated dockets therefor. General appraisers,

stenographic clerks, and Government counsel shall each be allowed and paid his necessary expenses of travel and his reasonable expenses, not to exceed $10 per day, in the case of general appraisers and Government counsel, and $8 per day in the case of stenographic clerks, actually incurred for maintenance while absent on such assignments away from New York. Said general appraisers shall be divided into three boards of three members each for the purpose of hearing and deciding appeals for the review of reappraisements of merchandise, and of hearing and deciding protests against decisions of collectors. The president of the board shall assign three of the general appraisers to each of the said boards and shall designate which member shall be chairman thereof. The president of the board shall be competent to sit as a member of any board or to assign one or two other members to any of such boards in the absence or disability of any one or two members of such board. A majority of any board shall have full power to hear and decide all cases and questions arising therein or assigned thereto. The board of three general appraisers deciding a case may, upon the motion of either party made within 30 days next after such decision, grant a rehearing or retrial of said case when in the opinion of said board the ends of justice so require.

The members of the Board of General Appraisers are hereby exempted from so much of section 1790 of the Revised Statutes as relates to their salaries.

When any of the general appraisers of merchandise resigns his office, having held his commission as such at least ten years, and having attained the age of seventy years, he shall during the residue of his natural life receive the same salary which was by law payable to him at the time of his resignation.

SEC. 532. RECORD OF DECISIONS.-All decisions of the general appraisers shall be preserved and filed and shall be open to inspection, and it shall be the duty of the said Board of General Appraisers to forward a copy of each decision to the collector of customs for the district in which the merchandise affected thereby was imported and to forward an additional copy to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall cause such decisions as he or the Board of General Appraisers shall deem sufficiently important to be published in full, or, if they shall not deem a full publication thereof necessary, then the board shall cause abstracts of such decisions to be made for publication, and such decisions and abstracts thereof shall be published from time to time and at least once each week for the information of customs officers and the public.

SEC. 533. REFUND OF EXCESSIVE DUTIES.-Whenever it is found upon the final liquidation of any entry that more money has been deposited with or paid to the collector of customs than was required by law to be deposited or paid, the same shall be refunded to the importer or consignee, under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the necessary moneys for such refunds are hereby appropriated, and this appropriation shall be deemed a permanent indefinite appropriation. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to correct manifest clerical errors in any entry or liquidation for or against the United States, and also to refund duties paid in excess upon personal or household effects, at any time within one year after the date of such entry or payment, notwith

standing that no protest may have been filed against the liquidation of such duties within the time and in the manner prescribed by law.

SEC. 534. RELIQUIDATION OF DUTIES.-Whenever the Secretary of the Treasury shall find that any merchandise has been passed through the customs upon the payment of a less amount of duties than legally accrued thereon, he may at any time within one year after the date of the entry of such merchandise order a reliquidation of the duties thereon and the collection of the increased duties found due, but whenever any entry has been liquidated and the merchandise covered thereby has been released from customs custody such liquidation shall, after the expiration of one year from the date of entry, in the absence of fraud or of protest, be final and conclusive upon all parties: Provided, That when the collector shall find that there is probable cause to believe there is fraud in the case he may reliquidate within two years after date of the entry.

SEC. 535. COOPERATION OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.-Any information which shall be obtained by executive departments and independent establishments of the Government which may be helpful in the appraisement of imported merchandise shall be furnished to appraising officers upon request of the Secretary of the Treasury.

PART 4.-TRANSPORTATION IN BOND AND WAREHOUSING OF MER

CHANDISE.

SEC. 551. CARRIER.-Any common carrier of merchandise owning or operating railroad, steamship, or other transportation lines or routes for the transportation of merchandise in the United States, upon application and the filing of a bond in a form and penalty and with such sureties as may be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, may be designated as a carrier of bonded merchandise for the final release of which from customs custody a permit has not been issued.

SEC. 552. IMMEDIATE TRANSPORTATION.-Any merchandise, other than explosives, shown by the invoice, bill of lading, manifest, shipping receipt, or other documents to be destined to a port of entry other than that at which such merchandise shall first arrive in the United States, may be forwarded by a bonded carrier, under such regulations and conditions as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe, from the port of arrival to such port of destination. Such merchandise shall not be subject to appraisement or the payment of duties at the port of first arrival, but the same entry, examination, and appraisement thereof shall be required and made at the port of destination as would have been made at the port of first arrival if such merchandise had not been so forwarded.

SEC. 553. TRANSIT GOODS.-Any merchandise, other than explosives, shown by the manifest, bill of lading, shipping receipt, or other document to be destined to a foreign country, may be forwarded through the United States by a bonded carrier without appraisement or the payment of duties and exported under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe, and any baggage or personal effects arriving in the United States destined to a foreign country may, upon the request of the owner or carrier having the same in possession for transportation, be forwarded through the United States

by a bonded carrier without entry or the payment of duty, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe.

SEC. 554. TRANSPORTATION THROUGH CONTIGUOUS COUNTRIES.With the consent of the proper authorities, imported merchandise, whether in bond or duty-paid, and products and manufactures of the United States may be transported from one port to another in the United States through contiguous countries, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe: Provided, That merchandise transported by water from one port of the United States to another, or transported by water from a port of the United States to a foreign port and thence by water to the port of reentry into the United States, shall be transported only in vessels documented as vessels of the United States.

SEC. 555. BONDED WAREHOUSES.-Buildings or parts of buildings and other inclosures may be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury as bonded warehouses for the storage of imported merchandise entered for warehousing, or taken possession of by the collector, or under seizure, or for the manufacture of merchandise in bond, or for the repacking, sorting, or cleaning of imported merchandise. Such warehouses may be bonded for the storing of such merchandise only as shall belong or be consigned to the owners or proprietors thereof and be known as private bonded warehouses, or for the storage of imported merchandise generally and be known as public bonded warehouses. Before any imported merchandise not finally released from customs custody shall be stored in any such premises, the owner or Fessee thereof shall give a bond in such sum and with such sureties as may be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury to secure the Government against any loss or expense connected with or arising from the deposit, storage, or manipulation of merchandise in such warehouse. All the expenses of handling merchandise in such warehouses shall be borne by the warehouse proprietor or by the owner of the merchandise, and the compensation of the storekeeper and other officers appointed to supervise the receipts of merchandise into such warehouses and deliveries therefrom shall be reimbursed to the Government by the proprietors of such warehouses..

SEC. 556. EXPORTATIONS FROM WAREHOUSE. The Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time establish such rules and regulations as may be necessary to protect the interests of the Government in the conduct, management, and operation of such warehouses and in the withdrawal of and accounting for erchandise deposited therein: Provided, That no landing certificate shall be required for merchandise exported from the United States, except where the Secretary of the Treasury shall have good reason to believe that such certificate is necessary for the protection of the revenue, and shall specifically order the production of such certificate.

SEC. 557. WAREHOUSE PERIOD DRAWBACK.-Any merchandise subject to duty, with the exception of perishable articles and explosive substances other than firecrackers, may be entered for warehousing and be deposited in a bonded warehouse at the expense and risk of the owner, importer, or consignee. Such merchandise may be withdrawn, at any time within three years from the date of importation, for consumption upon payment of the duties and charges accruing thereon at the rate of duty imposed by law upon such merchandise at the date of withdrawal; or may be withdrawn for