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File No. 5727/83.

No. 168.]

The British Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

BRITISH EMBASSY, Intervale, N. H., July 18, 1907. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note No. 108 of the 10th instant, informing me that in view of the facts set forth as to the status of British chambers of commerce, they will in future be recognized as qualified to issue certificates of value on the same terms as are accorded German chambers of commerce under paragraph F of the recent agreement between the United States and Germany.

I desire to express my recognition of the liberal spirit in which the United States Government have acted in this matter, and of the readiness shown in removing a difficulty which might have proved detrimental to important mutual commercial interests.

I am now instructed by His Majesty's Government to make certain inquiries for the elucidation of minor points connected with the exercise of these powers by British chambers of commerce. I should therefore be greatly obliged if I might be informed, for telegraphic communication to the competent authorities, whether the certificates of the British chambers of commerce will supersede the other documents relative to value required by the customs administration, particularly the declarations required to be indorsed on the back of the invoice under section 3 of the customs administrative act. Also, whether the value to be stated in the guarantee certificate is to include packing and other charges incidental to shipment.

I have, etc.,

JAMES BRYCE.

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File No. 5727/89.

The British Ambassador to the Acting Secretary of State.

No. 172.]

BRITISH EMBASSY, Intervale, N. H., July 20, 1907.

SIR: In my note of the 3d instant I had the honor to recommend to the United States Government certain British chambers of commerce as qualified for the purposes of issuing certificates of value under paragraph F of the note annexed to the agreement between the United States and Germany. These chambers of commerce were those of London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bradford, Belfast, Glasgow, and Dundee; and their qualifications have now been recognized in your note No. 108 of July 10.

I am now instructed to inform you that the following chambers have also been accepted by the board of trade as competent for this purpose, viz, Leeds, Hull, Edinburgh, Dublin, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bristol. I have, therefore, to ask that your department will be so good as to inform the competent authorities that certificates of value issued by chambers of commerce in this supplementary list be accepted on an equal footing with those of the chambers originally enumerated. JAMES BRYCE.

I have, etc.,

File No. 5727/83.

The Acting Secretary of State to the British Ambassador.

[Telegram.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, July 24, 1907.

Your note of the 18th. Certificates of the British chambers of commerce will not supersede other documents relative to value required by customs administrative act of the United States. Specific provisions of that act are not in anywise affected by the chambers of commerce certificates. The declaration required by section 3 must, therefore, be produced as heretofore. The chamber of commerce certificate should show the market value of the merchandise as that term is defined by section 19 of the customs administrative act. The value to be stated in the guarantee certificate should include packing and other charges incidental to shipment.

BACON.

File No. 5727/83.

The Acting Secretary of State to the British Ambassador. No. 122.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, July 26, 1907. EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 18th instant inquiring whether the certificates of the British chambers of commerce will supersede the other documents relative to value required by the customs administration, and to confirm the department's telegram of the 24th instant reading as follows (supra).

I may add that British board of trade certificates will be accepted as competent evidence by United States appraisers.

I have, etc.,

ROBERT BACON.

File No. 5727/95.

The Acting Secretary of State to the British Ambassador. No. 130.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 7, 1907.

EXCELLENCY: I duly communicated to the Secretary of the Treasury a copy of your note, No. 172 of the 20th ultimo, stating that the chambers of commerce of London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bradford, Belfast, Glasgow, Dundee, Leeds, Hull, Edinburgh, Dublin, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Bristol have been accepted by the board of trade as competent to issue certificates of value.

I am now in receipt of a reply from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury, in which it is stated that in accordance with that department's letter of July 9 last such certificates issued by any of the chambers of commerce named will be recognized by appraising offi

cers on the same terms as are accorded to those issued by German chambers of commerce under Point F of the diplomatic note attached to the recent commercial agreement between the United States and Germany.

A copy of the Treasury Department's letter of the 9th ultimo, to which reference is herein made, was communicated to the embassy on the 10th ultimo.

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ROYAL EMBASSY OF ITALY, Manchester, Mass., October 4, 1907.

Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: With reference to the conversation I had some time ago at your department with the Honorable Acting Secretary of State, Mr. Alvey A. Adee, and in pursuance of instructions received from His Majesty's Government, I have the honor to have recourse to your excellency's well-known courtesy and to beg that you will obtain for me from the Federal Government that the certificates issued by the Italian chambers of commerce, respecting the value of merchandise for export, be accepted by the competent American customs authorities as valid evidence and by them considered in connection with any other evidence that may be adduced.

In presenting this request I have to remark that it refers to, and at the same time originates from, the similar concession granted to Germany under the agreement which went into effect on the 1st of July last and, more recently, to other countries which have formally applied therefor. I beg to add, in implicit compliance with your excellency's natural request, that the Italian chambers of commerce bear the same quasi-governmental character as the German chambers and offer the same guarantees. His Majesty's Government authorizes me to make an explicit declaration in that sense to the Federal Government, and instructs me to say in support of this statement that. the Italian chambers of commerce under our law of July 6, 1862, are instituted by a royal decree which determines the headquarters and territory of each chamber as well as the number of its members. The charges and dues levied by the chambers can not be collected without first receiving the approval of the Government by a royal decree upon the advice of the council of state. The chambers are also under the direct supervision of the ministry of agriculture, industry, and commerce, which approves their by-laws, financial statements, and rolls of their clerical force. Furthermore, the Government has always the right to dissolve a chamber of commerce and to appoint a royal commission to take charge of its affairs until a new council is appointed.

Fully confident that this request, presented in the name of my Government, will meet with a favorable reception on the part of the Federal Government, I tender, in advance, my thanks to your excellency for whatever action you may be pleased to take in the sense herein indicated, and avail myself, etc.

G. C. MONTAGNE.

File No. 5727/141.

No. 543.]

The Acting Secretary of State to the Italian Chargé.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 17, 1907. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of the 4th instant, relative to acceptance by the appraising officers of the United States of the certificates of value issued by Italian chambers of commerce.

In reply I have the honor to inform you that this question has been referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, whose decision will be communicated promptly to you.

Accept, etc.,

ALVEY A. ADEE.

File No. 5727/148-149.

No. 552.]

The Secretary of State to the Italian Chargé.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 2, 1907.

SIR: In reply to your note of October 4, 1907, relative to certificates of value issued by Italian chambers of commerce, I have the honor to inclose herewith copy of "Treasury Decisions," issue of October 31, containing, on page 3, instructions to the appraising officers of the United States 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 the Italian chambers of

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LEGATION OF SWITZERLAND, Washington, D. C., September 3, 1907.

Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: When, on June 30, 1905, the Swiss Federal Council decided that the products of the soil and industry of the United States would be admitted, on and after the first of January, 1906, into the territory of the Swiss Confederation, at the same rate of customs duties as the like products of any other foreign country, the President of the United States, by his proclamation of January 1, 1906, guaranteed to Switzerland the application of reduced customs duties on articles set forth in section 3 of the tariff act of July 24, 1897, except, however, champagne and other sparkling wines.

Not printed.

The commercial agreement recently signed by the United States and Germany grants to Germany the rates fixed by section 3 of the tariff act on all articles named in the section and, on the part of the Imperial German Government, concedes to the United States the rates of the German conventional tariff for a certain number of products. On the ground that by its decision of 1905 it extended to the United States every concession, without exception, made to the other States in commercial treaties, the Swiss Federal Council instructs me to express to your excellency its earnest desire that the Government of the United States will, in consideration of the measures taken in its favor, consent to adding champagne and all the other sparkling wines exported from Switzerland to this country to the list of Swiss products enjoying the reduced rates of section 3.

In addition, I also have the honor to impart to your excellency my Government's wish that it may avail itself of the arrangement effected in the commercial agreement with Germany respecting the changes made in the customs and consular regulations as established in your excellency's note to the German ambassador at Washington dated April 22, 1907, appended to the commercial agreement and as they may be hereafter modified according to the intimation contained in your excellency's second note of May 2, 1907.

As regards the competence of chambers of commerce, my Government expresses a wish that the five chambers of commerce, hereinbelow named, be placed on the same footing as the German chambers of commerce. They are:

1. The "Kaumännische Direktorium" of St. Gall, the permanent bureau of the farmer merchant corporation of St. Gall, that has been in existence for centuries.

2. The Chamber of Commerce of Zurich, which is at the head of the commercial community of Zurich and was founded in the eighteenth century.

3. The Chamber of Commerce of Basle, which leads the commercial and industrial association of Basle.

4. The Chamber of Commerce of Geneva, on which the commercial and industrial association of Geneva is dependent.

5. The Swiss Chamber of Watchmakers at La Chaux de Fonds, the central official organ of the Chambers of Commerce and of the Departments of Commerce and Industry in the Cantons of Neuchatel, Vaud, Berne, and Soleure.

All these chambers of commerce have a permanent secretary's office; they are the organs whose advice is sought by the Governments of the Confederation and the Cantons and by the other authorities upo nevery commercial and industrial question; their agency and that of the German chambers of commerce are absolutely alike.

In support whereof I take the liberty of transmitting to your excellency, under separate cover, the by-laws of the five chambers of commerce and a copy of the reports they publish every year on the condition of commerce and industry.

Hoping that the Government of the United States will bestow its benevolent attention upon these several requests of the Swiss Federal Council herein presented, I beg your excellency to accept the renewed assurances of my highest consideration.

A. DE PURY.

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