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said Article includes, not only shipwrecked, stranded, and abanHoned vessels in territorial waters, but also those that, having been abandoned on the high seas, are brought into territorial waters, and whose nationality has been properly proved before a competent authority; in consequence, and in order to guarantee the rights of persons employed in the salvage of vessels, and to determine the competent Court for the arrangement of differences in the case of any claim, the stipulations of Article V of the said Treaty will be also applicable to the vessels in question. The Undersigned also declare that their respective Governments undertake to take the necessary measures to assure the prompt execution of Articles IV and V of the Treaty of Navigation above mentioned, in the sense understood by the present Declaration, on the part of the subordinate authorities of Marine.

Done in Madrid, in duplicate, on the 13th July, 1900.

THE MARQUESS OF AGUILAR DE CAMPOS.
O. GUDE.

ITALIAN DECREE, giving effect to an Agreement between Italy and the Argentine Republic on the subject of Copyright. -Rome, June 10, 1900.

(Translation.)

In view of Article 44 of the Law of the 19th September, 1882, in regard to the rights of authors;

Having consulted the Council of Ministers;

At the suggestion of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce,

We have decreed and decree as follows:

Sole Article.-Full and entire execution is given to the Agreement arrived at between Italy and Argentina, by the exchange of notes of the 7th and 18th April, 1900, for the application, in the intercourse between the two countries, of the South American Treaty of Montevideo of the 11th January, 1889,* in regard to the rights of authors.

We ordain that the present Decree shall be included among the laws of the kingdom, &c., and that it shall be obeyed by all.

Rome, June 10, 1900.

VISCONTI VENosta Salandra.

HUMBERT.

* Vol. XC, page 680.

ACT OF CONGRESS of the United States, relative to the Government of Porto Rico.

AN Act temporarily to provide Revenues and a Civil Government for Porto Rico, and for other purposes.

[Chap. 191.]

[April 12, 1900.] 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 and waters of the islands lying east of the 74th meridian of longitude west of Greenwich, which were ceded to the United States by the Government of Spain by Treaty entered into on the 10th day of December, 1898;* 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.

Sec. 2. That on and after the passage of this Act the same tariffs, customs, and duties shall be levied, collected, and paid upon all articles imported into Porto Rico from ports other than those of the United States which are required by law to be collected upon articles imported into the United States from foreign countries: Provided that on all coffee in the bean or ground imported into Porto Rico there shall be levied and collected a duty of 5 cents per lb., any law or part of law to the contrary notwithstanding; and provided further, that all Spanish scientific, literary, and artistic works, not subversive of public order in Porto Rico, shall be admitted free of duty into Porto Rico for a period of ten years, reckoning from the 11th day of April, 1899, as provided in said Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain; and provided further, that all books and pamphlets printed in the English language shall be admitted into Porto Rico free of duty when imported from the United States.

Sec. 3. That on and after the passage of this Act all merchandize coming into the United States from Porto Rico and coming into Porto Rico from the United States shall be entered at the several ports of entry upon payment of 15 per centum of the duties which are required to be levied, collected, and paid upon like' articles of merchandize imported from foreign countries; and in addition thereto upon articles of merchandize of Porto Rican manufacture coming into the United States and withdrawn for consumption or sale upon payment of a tax equal to the internal revenue tax imposed in the United States upon the like articles of merchandize of domestic manufacture; such tax to be paid by

* Vol. XC, page 382.

internal revenue stamp or stamps to be purchased and provided by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and to be procured from the Collector of Internal Revenue at or most convenient to the port of entry of said merchandize in the United States, and to be affixed under such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prescribe; and on all articles of merchandize of United States' manufacture coming into Porto Rico in addition to the duty above provided upon payment of a tax equal in rate and amount to the internal revenue tax imposed in Porto Rico upon the like articles of Porto Rican manufacture: Provided that on and after the date when this Act shall take effect, all merchandize and articles, except coffee, not dutiable under the tariff laws of the United States, and all merchandize and articles entered in Porto Rico free of duty under orders heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall be admitted into the several ports thereof, when imported from the United States, free of duty, all laws or parts of laws to the contrary notwithstanding; and whenever the Legislative Assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and put into operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities of the Government of Porto Rico, by this Act established, and shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff duties on merchandize and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into the United States from Porto Rico shall cease, and from and after such date all such merchandize and articles shall be entered at the several ports of entry free of duty; and in no event shall any duties be collected after the 1st day of March, 1902, on merchandize and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into the United States from Porto Rico.

Sec. 4. That the duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the United States upon articles of merchandize coming from Porto Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the Treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be placed at the disposal of the President to be used for the government and benefit of Porto Rico until the Government of Perto Rico herein provided for shall have been organized, when all moneys theretofore collected under the provisions hereof, then unexpended, shall be transferred to the local Treasury of Porto Rico; and the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate the several ports and sub-ports of entry in Porto Rico and shall make such rules and regulations and appoint such agents as may be necessary to collect the duties and taxes authorized to be levied, collected, and paid in Porto Rico by the

provisions of this Act, and he shall fix the compensation and provide for the payment thereof of all such officers, agents, and assistants as he may find it necessary to employ to carry out the provisions hereof: Provided, however, that as soon as a civil government for Porto Rico shall have been organized in accordance with the provisions of this Act, and notice thereof shall have been given to the President, he shall make proclamation thereof, and thereafter all collections of duties and taxes in Porto Rico under the provisions of this Act shall be paid into the Treasury of Porto Rico, to be expended as required by law for the government and benefit thereof instead of being paid into the Treasury of the United States.

Sec. 5. That on and after the day when this Act shall go into effect all goods, wares, and merchandize previously imported from Porto Rico, for which no entry has been made, and all goods, wares, and merchandize previously entered without payment of duty and under bond for warehousing, transportation, or any other purpose, for which no permit of delivery to the importer or his agent has been issued, shall be subjected to the duties imposed by this Act, and to no other duty, upon the entry or the withdrawal thereof: Provided that when duties are based upon the weight of merchandize deposited in any public or private bonded warehouse said duties shall be levied and collected upon the weight of such merchandize at the time of its entry.

General Provisions.

Sec. 6. That the capital of Porto Rico shall be at the city of San Juan and the seat of Government shall be maintained there.

Sec. 7. That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were Spanish subjects on the 11th day of April, 1899, and then resided in Porto Rico, and their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the protection of the United States, except such as shall have elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on or before the 11th day of April, 1900, in accordance with i the provisions of the Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain entered into on the 11th day of April, 1899; and they together with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of The people of Porto Rico," with governmental powers as hereinafter conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.

6.

Sec. 8. That the laws and ordinances of Porto Rico now in force shall continue in full force and effect, except as altered,

* Treaty signed December 10, 1898; ratifications exchanged April 11, 1899. See Vol. XC, page 382,

amended, or modified hereinafter, or as altered or modified by military Orders and Decrees in force when this Act shall take effect, and so far as the same are not inconsistent or in conflict with the statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, or the provisions hereof, until altered, amended, or repealed by the legislative authority hereinafter provided for Porto Rico or by Act of Congress of the United States: Provided that so much of the law which was in force at the time of the cession, April 11th, 1899, forbidding the marriage of priests, ministers, or followers of any faith because of vows they may have taken, being paragraph 4, Article 83, Chapter 3, Civil Code, and which was continued by the order of the Secretary of Justice of Porto Rico, dated March 17th, 1899, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States' Volunteers, is hereby repealed and annulled, and all persons lawfully married in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred by law upon parties to either civil or religious marriages; and provided further, that paragraph 1, Article 105, Section 4, divorce, Civil Code, and paragraph 2, Section 19, of the Order of the Minister of Justice of Porto Rico, dated March 17th, 1899, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States' Volunteers, be, and the same hereby are, so amended as to read: "Adultery on the part of either the husband or the wife."

Sec. 9. That the Commissioner of Navigation shall make such regulations, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, as he may deem expedient for the nationalization of all vessels owned by the inhabitants of Porto Rico on the 11th day of April, 1899, and which continued to be so owned up to the date of such nationalization, and for the admission of the same to all the benefits of the coasting trade of the United States; and the coasting trade between Porto Rico and the United States shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions of law applicable to such trade between any two great coasting districts of the United States.

Sec. 10. That quarantine stations shall be established at such places in Porto Rico as the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States shall direct, and the quarantine regulations relating to the importation of diseases from other countries shall be under the control of the Government of the United States.

Sec. 11. That for the purpose of retiring the Porto Rican coins now in circulation in Porto Rico and substituting therefor the coins of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to redeem, on presentation in Porto Rico, all the silver coins of Porto Rico known as the peso and all other silver and copper Porto Rican coins now in circulation in Porto Rico, not including any such coins that may be imported into Porto Rico

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