(3) Formulate regulations relating to hygiene and public health, and also regulations governing maritime, interprovincial, and interurban quarantine, and submit these regulations for the approval of the President.

(4) To see that these regulations are enforced.

ART. 3. The assistants of the subdirectors shall be named and remunerated by the municipality of the canton where they are required to serve during the first days of January of each year on the approval of the subdirectors.

ART. 4. The duties of the subdirectors shall be as follows:

(1) To see that the provisions of this act and the regulations made in pur suance thereof are enforced.

(2) Formulate special regulations for the cities or towns where their services are rendered, which regulations, on being approved by the director of public health, shall be transmitted to the municipality for their approval and enforcement. The political (Federal) and municipal authorities shall aid in every way possible in the enforcement of these regulations.

ART. 5. The salary of the director of public health shall be s/.800 (sucres) per month and that of each of his assistants s/.500 (sucres) per month.

ART. 6. The several municipalities shall furnish such funds as may be necessary to protect the public health in their respective jurisdictions unless there is a special fund provided for such work.

ART. 7. The subdirectors of public health shall be, ex officio, presidents of the boards of health in their respective cities and towns.

ART. 8. The director of public health is authorized to suspend, at his discretion, any regulation made in pursuance of this act if in his opinion it is to the interest of the public good to do so.

ART. 9. Municipal health regulations which may be in conflict with the regulations of the public-health service shall be void.

ART. 10. The director of the public health shall give bond in the sum of s/.5,000 (sucres) for the faithful performance of his duties and the management of the public funds intrusted to his care; and if it can be proven that he knowingly misused these funds, or if he receives or knowingly permits others to receive any pay or emolument for the purpose of influencing for or against any measures to be enforced, or if it can be proven that he has unlawfully used his influence or faculties for private gain, this bond shall be forfeited wholly or in part, according to the gravity of the case, and on conviction he shall be punished by a fine of from 500 to 2,000 sucres, or by imprisonment for a term of from six months to two years, or both, in the discretion of the court, funds so collected to belong to the funds of said service. In order that the director of public health may be punished for derelictions of his subordinates it shall be necessary to prove that he had guilty knowledge of the acts and that the guilty subordinate should be previously convicted. If the director of public health knowingly consents that his subordinates shall misuse their faculty or influence for private gain, he shall be responsible in the manner already stated, and his subordinates, on conviction of such dereliction, shall be fined not less than 500 nor more than 2,000 sucres or by imprisonment for a term of from six months to two years, or both, in the discretion of the court. ART. 11. With the naming of the director of public health the other organizations in Guayaquil having similar duties shall cease to exist and shall deliver, by inventory, to the director of public health all their funds, rents, offices, accessories, books, accounts, lazarettos, etc. The Comisión Especial de Saneamiento will transfer all of its offices, accessories, books, accounts, lazarettos, etc., to said director for the use of the public-health service; and in the act of effecting this transfer the Comisión Especial de Saneamiento shall be dissolved and its duties and attributions shall devolve upon and pass to the publichealth service herein provided for, duties and attributions which are defined in the executive decree of March 24, 1908.

ART. 12. The public health service shall be provided with a fund of 240,000 sucres per annum, authorized by the law of general appropriations, which fund shall be destined for the payment of salaries, the acquisition of materials, sustaining of lazarettos, and other expenses of the service, and shall be administered in accordance with the laws governing the administration of public funds. The public-health service shall deposit its funds in the Bank of Ecuador, in the city of Guayaquil, and shall check on such funds, the accounts to be approved by the governor of the Province of Guayas. In case of urgent necessity, as in times of epidemics, the President of the Republic shall increase these funds at his discretion. The funds mentioned in this article shall be

dedicated to the work of sanitation of the city of Guayaquil in conformity with the decree of March 24, 1903.

For the sanitation of other places in the Republic funds shall be provided by the respective municipalities, and those municipalities are authorized to impose the necessary taxes; but in case of urgent necessity the funds herein provided for may be drawn upon, but in this case the amounts taken shall be refunded to the public-health service.

ART. 13. The director of public health on assuming charge of his duties and responsibilities will formulate regulations which he shall submit to a commission formed of the deans of the faculties of medicine and law and one other member of each of these faculties for the approval of said commission. The rector of the University of Guayaquil shall be president of this commission. ART. 14. Authority is hereby granted to impose fines and imprisonment for violations of this act or of regulations made in accordance therewith.

ART. 15. The Federal and municipal police will enforce the provisions of this act and of the regulations made in accordance therewith, imposing fines and penalties for violations, failing in which they shall be responsible in conformity with the penal code.

ART. 16. All laws and parts of laws which may be in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

Given in Quito, the capital of the Republic, on the 29th day of October, 1908.

FRANCE.

COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE.

Memorandum from the French Embassy.

[Translation.]

THE FRENCH EMBASSY,

Washington, March 26, 1907.

Under date of August 23, 1905, the French Embassy had the honor to inform the State Department of the provisions of the French tariff laws which do not permit the French Government to continue to grant the benefit of the minimum tariff to importations of coffee from Porto Rico.

The considerations set forth on this occasion by the United States Government and contained in the note of the State Department of September 8, 1905, were brought to the attention of the minister of commerce of the Republic, who has just made a new investigation of the situation arising with regard to coffee from Porto Rico, from the nonratification by the American Senate, within the periods specified, of the Franco-American convention of July 24, 1899, and of the additional arrangement of January 31, 1903, extending to Porto Rico the benefit of said convention.

In its aforesaid note the State Department explained that, upon agreeing to extend to the products of Porto Rico, by the convention of August 20, 1902, the advantages granted to North American products by the commercial convention of May 28, 1898, the French Government had in exchange secured for Algerian products, upon their importation into the United States, the benefits of the tariff reductions granted by the said convention to French products. Now, this exchange of concessions had been especially advantageous, according to the Federal Government, to French and Algerian commerce, notably with regard to their exportations of wines and tartars, and the State Department consequently considered the application of the French minimum tariff to Porto Rican coffees as a compensation calculated to establish the equilibrium between the concessions granted on both sides in 1902.

The Federal Government furthermore observed that, according to the agreement of May 28, 1898, which at present governs the commercial relations between France and the United States, the latter country now grants to France the tariff treatment of the most-favored nation, without receiving in return the same treatment when the case is otherwise with regard to third nations under identical conditions. In reply to these observations my Government has instructed me to state to your excellency that these arguments do not appear such as to warrant the application of the French minimum tariff to Porto Rican coffees. In fact, at the time of the arrangement of August 20,

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1892, it was understood that the extension of the benefits of the commercial convention of May 28, 1898, to Porto Rican products would constitute an offset to the advantages which the United States should grant to French commerce by extending the effects of this convention. to Algerian products. This exchange of concessions appeared, at the time it was agreed upon, to be self-compensating, and every fresh concession added to the one we then granted would appear to secure to the United States an advantage for which we receive no compensation.

It is true that, on concluding the arrangement in question, the French Government at the same time agreed to admit Porto Rican products to the benefits of our lowest rates up to February 23, 1903. But it does not seem that this provision should be invoked to-day by the Federal Government in order to secure the permanent concession of the favor then granted to Porto Rican coffee. This favor was in fact granted only temporarily in order to enable Porto Rican coffees. to enter France at the minimum tariff rates until the ratification of the convention of July 24, 1899, should have granted them these rates permanently.

The periods for which this favor was granted having now expired without any other act having intervened to grant the minimum tariff to Porto Rican coffees, it follows that by right the Federal Government has no grounds on which to demand the maintenance of the favoring rates which have hitherto been granted to its products.

On the other hand, my government can not admit the second argument invoked by the State Department, viz, that, since the United States grants to France the tariff treatment of the most-favored nation, American importers should, owing to this circumstance, derive a right in proper cases to enjoy the same rates in France.

It is beyond doubt, in reality, that the rates established in our general tariff are very moderate in comparison to the very high duties levied on most of our products upon entering the United States, and that the application of our minimum tariff to the articles contemplated in the convention of May 28, 1898, amply compensates the reductions in duties which have been granted to us by the United States. Moreover, if this argument were well founded, the United States would be entitled to demand the whole of our minimum tariff and not only our lowest rates on coffees. It is obvious that such a claim as this could not be admitted.

Being desirous of showing the broadest spirit of conciliation, while at the same time bound by the provisions of the law of February 20, 1903, regarding the tariff rates on colonial produce, the minister of commerce has decided not to subject Porto Rican coffees to the general tariff until on and after August 1, 1907, so that, in the interests of transactions concluded up to July 31 next, they will enjoy the provisional rates by which they have benefited since September 23, 1903.

The Government of the Republic would be disposed to utilize the interval until August 1 next in order to sound the Federal Government for the purpose of ascertaining whether it would be willing, in exchange for the minimum tariff applicable to Porto Rican coffees, to grant to French merchandise, both on this island and in the United. States, the reduction provided by Section III of the American customs law of July 24, 1897, on champagnes and sparkling wines, which are not included in the agreement of May 28, 1898.

Memorandum to the French Embassy.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, May 21, 1907.

The Department of State has the honor to acknowledge receipt of the memorandum by the ambassador of France, dated March 26 last, relative to the intention of his Government to apply the general tariff to Porto Rican coffee on and after August 1, 1907, and proposing that the interval before that date be utilized for the negotiation of a supplementary commercial agreement between the two countries, whereby, in exchange for the minimum tariff applicable to Porto Rican coffee, the Government of the United States should grant to champagne and sparkling wines produced in France and imported into the United States, including Porto Rico, the reductions of duty provided by section 3 of the United States tariff act of July 24, 1897.

In reply the Department of State has the honor to inform the ambassador of France that these proposals of his Government are receiving careful consideration, and that a response thereto will be made in the near future.

The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, June 19, 1907. DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR: I am sending to you to-day a memorandum in reply to yours of March 26 last relating to the duty on Porto Rican coffee, and also a letter suggesting certain changes in the French restrictive regulations applicable to American cattle, meats, fruits, and plants, which would seem to be made practicable by the working of our new inspection laws in the United States.

I wish at the same time to confirm what I have already said to you orally, that during all the negotiations which have led to the commercial agreement between the United States and Germany, proclaimed by the President on the 1st day of this month, this Government has looked forward to proposing similar negotiations with France, and has kept in mind the complaints which have been made from time to time in behalf of French exporters to the United States regarding features of our customs administration which they considered vexatious and injurious to them; that it was our purpose to make the amendments of our regulations of such a character as to remove, so far as practicable, all cause for complaint on the part of the French exporters, as well as on the part of German exporters; and that it is the wish of this Government to apply the new regulations to trade between the United States and France without any discrimination whatever against the latter country.

In my letter relating to the regulations upon the admission of American cattle, etc., I have asked that the French Government shall send a commission of experts to the United States to examine into the workings of the official inspection system now in operation in this country. On the other hand, we are very desirous to put all the trade relations between France and the United States on the most satisfactory basis possible, and I have conferred with the Secretary