On the strength of these references and pursuant to instructions. I have the honor to request Your Excellency to kindly inform me whether the Government is willing to recognize the standing of the Hungarian chambers of commerce and industry on an equal footing with those of the German Empire with respect to the issue of certificates as to the value of goods.

Availing myself, finally, of this occasion in order to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of Your Excellency's esteemed note No. 274 of the 3d instant, I beg of you to accept the renewed assurance of my most distinguished consideration.

L. AMBRÓZY.

[Inclosure.]

Translation of an extract from Article VI of the law of 1868 relating to chambers of commerce and industry.

SECTION 1. The chambers of commerce and industry are organs designed alike for the furtherance of commercial and industrial interests.

SEC. 2. The chambers of commerce and industry are under the direction of the minister of agriculture, industry, and commerce, whose orders they shall receive and execute directly and to whom they shall report directly. However, they are at liberty, in the performance of their duties, to correspond directly with the municipalities of the country as well as with private corporations. and also among themselves.

SEC. 3. The duties of the chambers are as follows:

(a) To formulate suggestions in the interest of commerce and industry as well as of the needs of the classes engaged in these branches, to submit these suggestions to the minister, to furnish the minister and the municipalities of the country the desired information or opinions on commercial and industrial matters, and to promote the improvement and development of commerce and industry generally in a direct manner.

(b) To gather data relating to commercial and industrial statistics within their districts and to submit the same at the end of each year to the minister. (c) To send in a regular yearly report to the minister on the condition of commerce, traffic, and industry in their district, and on experiences, complaints, and wishes relating thereto.

(d) To keep an accurate register of all trade-marks and samples reported to the chamber.

(e) To examine technically those persons who apply to be licensed brokers, and to enter them in the category of such brokers in case they are found fitted therefor.

(f) To issue certificates regarding local commercial customs (consuetudinary laws) and samples of goods presented.

(g) To delegate members to the temporary sessions or committee meetings of the united chambers called by the minister for the purpose of securing authoritative opinions.

SEC. 14. The president and both vice-presidents shall be confirmed in their office by the minister. In case one of these places becomes vacant, owing to resignation or death, the chamber must immediately proceed to elect a suc

cessor.

File No. 5727/131.

The Chargé of Austria-Hungary to the Secretary of State.

No. 1799.]

[Translation.]

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMBASSY, Bar Harbor, September 8, 1907. EXCELLENCY: Your Excellency was good enough to advise me, by your valued note of the 3d instant, No. 274, that the next issue of

the Treasury Decisions would instruct the customs officials of the United States that the provisions of Point F in the published diplomatic note appended to the commercial agreement between the United States and the German Empire have been extended to the Austrian chambers of commerce and industry.

The said issue of the Treasury Decisions has since come to my hands, and I find on pages Treasury Decision No. 28 400 bearing on the subject. After perusal thereof I can not but draw Your Excellency's obliging attention to the fact that while it was held out in the above-mentioned note that the customs officials of the United States, without restriction, would be suitably instructed, the instruction printed in the above-mentioned Treasury Decision appears to have been addressed to the appraisers of the United States at New York only.

Unless some error should have crept into the publication of the cited Treasury Decision, the case might occur, when, in the entry of some Austrian article imported at Boston, for instance, the value certificate of an Austrian chamber of commerce and industry would not receive the same treatment as a certificate of a German chamber of commerce stating the value of an imported German article, which treatment is regulated by the last paragraph of Circular No. 36 of the Treasury Department, addressed to all the customs collectors and officials in the United States.

As I can not surmise that it is the intention of the Federal Government to discriminate between the Austrian and German certificates of chambers of commerce in ports of entry other than New York, I have the honor to have recourse to Your Excellency's kindly intercession, and respectfully to request that all the customs officials who have received Treasury Circular No. 36 of 1906 be instructed that the provisions of Point F in the published diplomatic note appended to the commercial agreement between the United States and the German Empire have been extended to the Austrian chambers of commerce and industry.

Looking forward to an obliging answer from Your Excellency to the foregoing, I improve this opportunity to renew the assurance of my most distinguished high consideration.

L. AMBRÓZY.

File No. 5727/131.

The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé of Austria-Hungary.

No. 277.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 14, 1907.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of the 8th instant, relative to certificates of value issued by Austrian chambers of commerce and industry. Referring to recent correspondence, you call attention to the fact that the instructions of the Treasury Department, extending the provisions of Point F in the commercial agreement between the United States and the German Empire to Austrian chambers of commerce and industry, were addressed merely to the appraising officer at New York, as appears in Treasury Decisions No. 28400, and you request that those instructions be made general.

In reply, I have the honor to inform you that the department is advised by the Treasury Department that the publication in Treasury Decisions of an instruction to the collector at New York makes that instruction applicable to all other collectors of customs in the United States, it being the practice of the Treasury to issue instructions either by circular addressed to all customs officers, or by the publication in Treasury Decisions of an instruction issued to a particular customs officer. The Treasury Department assures this department that the certificates of value issued by the Austrian chambers of commerce and industry will be accorded equally favorable treatment in all the ports of entry of the United States.

Accept, etc.,

ALVEY A. ADEE.

File No. 5727/137.

The Secretary of State to the Chargé of Austria-Hungary. No. 229.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 24, 1907. SIR: Referring to your note of the 7th instant, relative to certificates of value issued by Hungarian chambers of commerce and industry, I have the honor to inform you that this department promptly conferred with the Treasury Department in regard to this matter, and that the Acting Secretary of the Treasury has advised this department, under date of the 20th instant, that the customs officers of the United States will be instructed in the next issue of "Treasury Decisions" that the provisions of Point F of the diplomatic note annexed to the commercial agreement between the United States and Germany have been extended to Hungarian chambers of commerce and industry.

Accept, etc.,

File No. 5727/151.

ELIHU ROOT.

The Ambassador of Austria-Hungary to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

No. 2252.]

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMBASSY, Washington, November 13, 1907. EXCELLENCY: I am informed by the imperial and royal foreign office that the consulate of the United States at Vienna is not yet aware that the provisions in Point F of the annex to the commercial agreement concluded between the United States and German Empire concerning certificates of value of merchandise issued by the German chambers of commerce have been extended to the Austrian chambers of commerce and industry.

The issuance of certificates of export values as provided in Point F of the above-mentioned agreement is made difficult for the chambers of commerce and industry, in that the said certificates must be inseparably attached to the invoices presented for certification at the consulate, but when so attached as required for the purposes of recognition they are not accepted by the consulates of the United States.

I therefore have the honor, by direction of my Government, respectfully to ask that Your Excellency will kindly take the requisite steps to have the American consuls in Austria and Hungary officially advised of the concessions which form the subject of your valued notes of September 3, No. 274, and of September 24, No. 279, and also of the contents of the Treasury Decisions Nos. 28400 and 28420, therein referred to.

Accept, etc.

HENGELMULLER.

File No. 5727/151.

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador of Austria-Hungary.

No. 299.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 5, 1907.

EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note, No. 2252, of the 13th ultimo, asking that the American consuls in Austria and Hungary be officially advised that the provisions of the commercial agreement between the United States and Germany relative to chambers of commerce certificates have been extended to the Austrian and Hungarian chambers of commerce and industry.

In reply, I have the honor to state that the department has duly instructed, in the sense of Your Excellency's request, the American consuls in Austria and in Hungary.

Accept, etc.,

File No. 5727/59.

FRANCE.

ELIHU ROOT.

The French Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

FRENCH EMBASSY, Washington, June 8, 1907.

Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: Referring to the several conversations I have had the honor to hold with your excellency in the course of which you were good enough to give me an assurance that the advantages set forth in your note to Baron Sternburg, under date of April 22 last, applied to France, I deem it my duty to say, with respect to the status of our chambers of commerce, that those institutions exist and officiate in France under laws and decrees of which the principal ones are the laws of December 21, 1871, and April 9, 1898, and the decrees of August 30, 1852, and January 22, 1872.

Under the provisions of those acts, no chamber of commerce can be created except by a decree of the Government, issued upon the advice of the council of state. The chambers at present number 157 in continental France alone; the names of all their members appear on page 1364 of the "Annuaire National" for 1906. The French chambers of commerce are juridical persons; they may own property, receive donations, bequests, etc.

The members of the chambers of commerce are elected under the conditions defined in the above-mentioned provisions. Merchants

and stockbrokers who have obtained the age of 30 years, paid license for five years and are domiciled within the jurisdiction of the chamber, deep-sea captains who have been in command for not less than five years, and several other classes of similarly responsible persons are eligible. The number of members of each chamber of commerce is determined by the decree which created it; they are elected for a term of six years, one-third being renewed every second year.

The law delegates to the chambers important, active, or advisory powers; in some cases the Government must even seek the previous advice of the chambers of commerce before reaching certain decisions affecting French trade; this shows how highly these assemblies are considered.

As regards the new conditions applied to special agents of the American Treasury, as set forth in Paragraph E of your excellency's above-mentioned note, it seems to me, as it does to you, that the most simple method of applying them would be to furnish the Government of the Republic with information concerning the said agents through the embassy of the United States at Paris.

I believe these few statements will meet the wish you were pleased to express and I beg you to accept, etc.,

File No. 5727/59.

JUSSERAND.

The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, June 13, 1907. EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 8th instant, stating the status of French chambers of commerce, a translation of which I have communicated to the Secretary of the Treasury.

It will be my pleasure upon hearing from him to communicate with you further with respect to the subject-matter of your note.

Accept, etc.,

ELIHU ROOT.

File No. 5727/66.

The Acting Secretary of State to the French Chargé.

No. 412.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, June 29, 1907. SIR: With further reference to the ambassador's note of the 8th instant, in connection with certain questions regarding the recent commercial agreement between the United States and Germany and concerning the status of French chambers of commerce, I have the honor to advise you that I am in receipt of a letter from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury stating that he would be pleased to receive copies of the laws and decrees to which reference is made by the ambassador in his note above referred to. In making this request, Mr. Reynolds adds a statement to the effect that there would appear to be no reason for refusing to accept as competent evidence certificates of value issued by French chambers of commerce where they are governmental or quasi-governmental institutions.

Accept, etc.,

ALVEY A. ADEE.