The PRESIDENT: "The question now recurs on the amendment of the Delegate of Italy."

The Delegate of Russia (Mr. BARTHOLOMEI): "I move we now ad. journ."

The PRESIDENT: "The amendment of the Delegate of Italy will be printed and sent to every delegate, and will come up at the next meeting as unfinished business."

The question was then taken on adjourning, and it was decided in the affirmative.

So the Conference adjourned to meet at the call of the President.
The President of the Conference:

JOHN HAY.

The Secretaries of the Conference:

THOMAS J. TURNER.
RUSTEM.

PROTOCOL No. 6.

SESSION OF FEBRUARY 9, 1881.

President, Mr. JOHN HAY.

The Conference met at 1 o'clock p. m., pursuant to the call of the President.

The following Delegates were present:

Germany H. A. Schumacher.

Argentine Republic: Señor Don Julio Carrié.

Austria-Hungary: Count Bethlen.

Belgium: Baron d'Anethan and Mr. Edouard Sève.

Chili: Señor Don Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga.

China Chen Lan Pin.

Denmark: Mr. Carl Steen Andersen de Bille.

Spain: Señor Don Felipe Mendez de Vigo and Señor Don Rafael Cervera.

United States: Mr. John Hay, Dr. James L. Cabell, Dr. Thomas J. Turner, J. Hubley Ashton, Esq., and James Lowndes, Esq.

France: Mr. Maxime Outrey.

Hayti: Mr. Stephen Preston.
Italy: Prince de Camporeale.

Mexico: Señor Don Ignacio Alvarado.

Netherlands: Jonkheer Rudolph von Pestel and Dr. F. J. van Leent. Portugal: Viscount das Nogueiras and Professor José Joaquim da Silva Amado.

Russia: Mr. Michel Bartholomei.

Sweden and Norway: Count Carl Lewenhaupt.

Turkey: Grégoire Aristarchi Bey.

The protocols of the third, fourth, and fifth days' proceedings were laid before the Conference and approved.

The PRESIDENT said that he had just been informed that the Delegate of Great Britain (Mr. ARCHIBALD) had been called away from Washington by the severe illness of a member of his family, and would prob ably not be able to attend the future meetings of the Conference.

The PRESIDENT: "The first business before the Conference is the proposition of the Delegate of Italy."

The proposition was read as follows:

Proposition No. IV.

The bill of health shall be delivered at the port of departure by the responsible agent of the central government.

The consul of the country of destination at the port of departure shall have authority to authenticate the bill of health, and to add thereon such remarks as he may deem necessary.

The Delegate of the United States (Dr. TURNER): "I have to state, in response to an inquiry made at the last session of the Conference by the Delegate of Denmark (Mr. DE BILLE), concerning the detail of the sanitary examination of vessels suggested in the proposed International Bill of Health presented by the committee, that such examinations have been and still are required by the bills of health of France and Portugal. "I have also to reiterate the objections of the Delegates of the United States to the proposition of the Delegate of Italy (Prince DE CAMPOREALE), providing, in the first place, for the issuing of bills of health (a means of notification) by the local agent of the central authority at the port of departure; and, in the second place, for the visé of the consul at the same port as to its authenticity, together with such remarks as he may deem necessary, and for the following reasons:

"In the United States, boards of health are the local sanitary authorities, and in many instances do not have the power to grant bills of health. We are aware also of the fact that the board of health of a large city estimates its population at 60,000 beyond the number ascertained by official governmental census, thus rendering any numerical standard of the health of that community based upon its population valueless. "We are aware of the fact that a board of health in another large city declines to have its mortality statistics published, unless by their express consent first obtained, thus rendering any information upon such statistics dependent upon caprice.

"We are aware of other boards of health that have deliberately suppressed the facts as to the existence of infectious disease. We are also cognizant of a board of health granting that which is called a clean bill of health, upon which it was stated that the port and its environs are free from the suspicion of contagious and infectious diseases, especially yellow fever', etc., and issued under the seal of the office, whilst at the same time the sworn statement of an officer cited over 80 cases with 34 deaths from yellow fever during the week preceding the date of the bill of health. This bill of health was issued, as has been stated, by a board of health, said board being at the time the local agent of a central au

thority. It is but uttering a truism when it is stated that it does not require much observation to determine the fact that, accepting local standards, there is not an unhealthy city in the world, nor a city whose inhabitants do not resent the imputation of being unhealthy, in more or less decided terms, according to the amount of their pretentiousness, ignorance, and filth. Such, it is submitted, is the demonstrated value of any notification by local agencies of the port or place.

"We are not prepared, however, in like manner, to demonstrate the same want of confidence in consular signatures to any means of notification, such as a bill of health, although many members of this Confer. ence are fully aware to what amount of credence such sanitary notifications are entitled. Such as they are, they have heretofore been received as evidence, but of a character more or less doubtful. What we ask is that the consul or like accredited agent shall have all means to obtain trustworthy information concerning the sanitary condition of his consular district. Over a consul his government has control, and he should not be permitted to get beyond the limit of its power to secure a prompt and efficient discharge of a duty the execution of which, in this instance the issuing of a bill of health, is designed for the protection of the lives and health of his countrymen. Over the local agent of the central authority in his consular district his home government of course has not, nor can have, control. In the mixed proposition presented responsibility rests nowhere. It affords a convenient apparatus for defeating its own object. It is granted that it has the plausible air of being eminently practical; it is, however, preeminently worthless, as it offers to the preju dices of the local sanitary agent, and to the almost enforced ignorance of the sanitary condition of the port of the consul, the opportunity of adding falsehood to distrust.

"Lastly, giving authority to consuls to visit and inspect vessels not carrying the flag of their nationality may involve very serious questions, and is, he thinks, not to be admitted as the general rule.'

"If, also, the statement of the Delegate from Italy (Prince DE CAMPOREALE) represents the opinion of the majority of this Conference, then it is the opinion of the Delegates of the United States that the principal objects for which this Conference was called will not be attained. "The right to determine by an inspection the sanitary condition of a vessel, her cargo, passengers, and crew, in a port, it is stated cannot be admitted as a general rule to a foreign accredited agent, even when it is proposed to make such inspections reciprocal.

"If this cannot be admitted as a general rule, specialization of the circumstances under which it is to be permitted destroys at once any efficiency or value such sanitary inspection may be considered to have as affording trustworthy information. It is an essential that the sanitary condition of a vessel, her cargo, passengers, and crew, should be known. Ships are the carriers of pestilences. Rapid commercial intercourse means also the rapid transmission of pestilential disease. At the port

of New York alone, in December, 1880, 72 steamers carrying emigrants arrived on an average of one every 10 hours. It is of more importance to know these sanitary conditions as pertaining to a vessel than it is to know those of the port from whence she sails, and it is of still greater importance that these sanitary conditions should be known at the port of destination for the protection of the lives and health of that community.

"That such examinations are made now by foreign agents at ports of departure is well known. The examinations of vessels, passengers, and crews, at Jiddah, Yambo, Suez, and other ports of departure on the Red Sea, of pilgrims on their return from Mecca by foreign agents of ports of destinations, has saved Europe from irruptions of cholera. What we ask in this connection is the transfer of a thorough sanitary examination of the vessel, cargo, passengers, and crew from the port of destination to the port of departure, because it is more consonant with good judg ment, common sense, and, without interfering with commercial interests, largely promotes the arrest of transmissible disease. If the vessel at the port of destination, under certain circumstances, is subjected to vexatious delays to ascertain her sanitary condition-often by foreign agents -it seems that it is simply a wise measure of prevention to have these measures carried out at a port of departure by the consul or other accredited agent of the port of destination.

"Who can be more concerned, both from interest as well as duty, in obtaining and forwarding such information than the consul, or like accredited agent, of such port? No one. It is he who has, or should have, official cognizance of all the facts relating to vessels, their cargoes, passengers, and crews; and in subserving the sanitary interests of the port of destination he decreases the liability of commercial interests being affected by vexatious and costly detentions.

"It is a maritime sanitary axiom that a yellow-fever ship is ipso facto a foul, dirty ship, and cholera has been brought to our shores in foul vessels with dirty crews, and these are the diseases especially noted in the act of Congress upon which notification is desired. Failing to secure such an inspection by the accredited agent of the country of destination, it follows as a consequence that he can make no truthful notification as to the sanitary condition of a vessel.

"To recapitulate: First, then, as to the port

"The Delegates of the United States have no confidence in the method of notification proposed as to the health of a port or place founded upon local statements.

"Secondly, as to the vessel

"The Delegates of the United States declare that if no sanitary examination of a vessel, her cargo, passengers, and crew, can be made by the accredited agent of the port or country of destination, it follows that no truthful notification of such sanitary condition could therefore be made.