effectively accomplish such objects and to the end of concluding a convention for this purpose have appointed as their respective plenipotentiaries: The President of the United States of America, Robert Lansing, Secretary of State of the United States; and His Britannic Majesty, the Right Honorable Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, G. C. V. O., K. C. M. G., etc., His Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Washington; Who after having communicated to each other their respective full powers which were found to be in due and proper form, have agreed to and adopted the following articles: ARTICLE I The high contracting powers declare that the migratory birds included in the terms of this convention shall be as follows: 1. Migratory Game Birds: (a) Anatidae or waterfowl, including brant, wild ducks, geese, and swans. (b) Gruidae or cranes, including little brown, sandhill, and whoop ing cranes. (c) Rallidae or rails, including coots, gallinules and sora and other rails. (d) Limicolae or shorebirds, including avocets, curlew, dowitchers, godwits, knots, oyster catchers, phalaropes, plovers, sandpipers, snipe, stilts, surf birds, turnstones, willet, woodcock and yellowlegs. (e) Columbidae or pigeons, including doves and wild pigeons. 2. Migratory Insectivorous Birds: Bobolinks, catbirds, chickadees, cuckoos, flickers, flycatchers, grosbeaks, humming birds, kinglets, martins, meadowlarks, nighthawks, or bull bats, nut-hatches, orioles, robins, shrikes, swallows, swifts, tanagers, titmice, thrushes, vireos, warblers, wax-wings, whippoorwills, woodpeckers, and wrens, and all other perching birds which feed entirely or chiefly on insects. 3. Other Migratory Nongame Birds: Auks, auklets, bitterns, fulmars, gannets, grebes, guillemots, gulls, herons, jaegers, loons, murres, petrels, puffins, shearwaters, and terns. ARTICLE II The high contracting Powers agree that, as an effective means of preserving migratory birds, there shall be established the following close seasons during which no hunting shall be done except for scientific or propagating purposes under permits issued by proper authorities. 1. The close season on migratory game birds shall be between March 10 and September 1, except that the close season on the limicolae or shorebirds in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and in those States of the United States bordering on the Atlantic Ocean which are situated wholly or in part north of Chesapeake Bay shall be between February 1 and August 15, and that Indians may take at any time scoters for food but not for sale. The season for hunting shall be further restricted to such period not exceeding three and one-half months as the high contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate and define by law or regulation. 2. The close season on migratory insectivorous birds shall continue throughout the year. 3. The close season on other migratory nongame birds shall continue throughout the year, except that Eskimos and Indians may take at any season auks, auklets, guillemots, murres and puffins, and their eggs, for food and their skins for clothing, but the birds and eggs so taken shall not be sold or offered for sale. ARTICLE III The high contracting Powers agree that during the period of ten years next following the going into effect of this convention, there shall be a continuous close season on the following migratory game birds, to wit: Band-tailed pigeons, little brown, sandhill and whooping cranes, swans, curlew and all shorebirds (except the black-breasted and golden plover, Wilson or jack snipe, woodcock, and the greater and lesser yellowlegs); provided that during such ten years the close seasons on cranes, swans and curlew in the Province of British Columbia shall be made by the proper authorities of that Province within the general dates and limitations elsewhere prescribed in this convention for the respective groups to which these birds belong. ARTICLE IV The high contracting Powers agree that special protection shall be given the wood duck and the eider duck either (1) by a close season extending over a period of at least five years, or (2) by the establishment of refuges, or (3) by such other regulations as may be deemed appropriate. ARTICLE V The taking of nests or eggs of migratory game or insectivorous or nongame birds shall be prohibited, except for scientific or propagating purposes under such laws or regulations as the high contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate. ARTICLE VI The high contracting Powers agree that the shipment or export of migratory birds or their eggs from any State or Province, during the continuance of the close season in such State or Province, shall be prohibited except for scientific or propagating purposes, and the international traffic in any birds or eggs at such time captured, killed, taken, or shipped at any time contrary to the laws of the State or Province in which the same were captured, killed, taken, or shipped shall be likewise prohibited. Every package containing migratory birds or any parts thereof or any eggs of migratory birds transported, or offered for transportation from the United States into the Dominion of Canada or from the Dominion of Canada into the United States, shall have the name and address of the shipper and an accurate statement of the contents clearly marked on the outside of such package. ARTICLE VII Permits to kill any of the above-named birds which, under extraordinary conditions, may become seriously injurious to the agricultural or other interests in any particular community, may be issued by the proper authorities of the high contracting Powers under suitable regulations prescribed therefor by them respectively, but such permits shall lapse, or may be cancelled, at any time when, in the opinion of said authorities, the particular exigency has passed, and no birds killed under this article shall be shipped, sold or offered for sale. ARTICLE VIII The high contracting Powers agree themselves to take, or propose to their respective appropriate law-making bodies, the necessary measures for insuring the execution of the present convention. ARTICLE IX The present convention shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by His Brittanic Majesty. The ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible and the convention shall take effect on the date of the exchange of the ratifications. It shall remain in force for fifteen years and in the event of neither of the high contracting Powers having given notification, twelve months before the expiration of said period of fifteen years, of its intention of terminating its operation, the convention shall continue to remain in force for one year and so on from year to year. In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the present convention in duplicate and have hereunto affixed their seals. Done at Washington this sixteenth day of August, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen. [SEAL.] [SEAL] ROBERT LANSING. AN ACT TO PROVIDE A CIVIL GOVERNMENT FOR PORTO RICO Approved March 2, 1917. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of this Act shall apply to the island of Porto Rico and to the adjacent islands belonging to the United States, and waters of those islands; and the name Porto Rico as used in this Act shall be held to include not only the island of that name but all the adjacent islands as aforesaid. 1 PUBLIC-No. 368-64TH CONGRESS. [H. R. 9533.] BILL OF RIGHTS SEC. 2. That no law shall be enacted in Porto Rico which shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or deny to any person therein the equal protection of the laws. That in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to have the assistance of counsel for his defense, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to have a copy thereof, to have a speedy and public trial, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, and to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor. That no person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law; and no person for the same offense shall be twice put in jeopardy of punishment, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. That all persons shall before conviction be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great. That no law impairing the obligation of contracts shall be enacted. That no person shall be imprisoned for debt. That the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in case of rebellion, insurrection, or invasion, the public safety may require it, in either of which events the same may be suspended by the President, or by the governor, whenever during such period the necessity for such suspension shall exist. That no ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted. Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use except upon payment of just compensation ascertained in the manner provided by law. Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to limit the power of the legislature to enact laws for the protection of the lives, health, or safety of employees. That no law granting a title of nobility shall be enacted, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under the government of Porto Rico shall, without the consent of the Congress of the United States, accept any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from any king, queen, prince, or foreign State, or any officer thereof. That excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. |