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representative of Brazil, or by any other delegation proposing them.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT. The motion of the honorable delegate from Guatemala is whether the Conference considers the committee's report as a whole sufficiently discussed.

If the Chair hears no objection the debate on the whole will be considered as ended.

The Chair hears none.

The general discussion is ended and the debate in detail will be entered upon.

The Secretary reads the first article as follows:

First. That all the charges imposed upon vessels as port dues shall be reduced to a single one to be known as tonnage dues.

Mr. MENDONÇA. I move to amend as follows: To insert the words "consular fees excepted" after the word "dues," so that it will read as follows:

First. That all the charges imposed upon vessels as port dues, consular fees excepted, shall be reduced to a single one, to be known as tonnage dues.

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT. The article is in discussion with the amendment of the honorable delegate from Brazil.

Mr. VARAS. Although at this moment the discussion is already entered upon, the first article, or the first resolution proposed by the committee being up for debate, the honorable delegate from Brazil in the remarks which the Conference has heard, touched not only upon this point but went into the examination of the entire plan in all its parts, and expressed ideas under the influence of which I do not wish the Conference to rest without expressing myself, it will

permit me, for this reason, not to limit myself to the proposed amendment to the article now under discussion, but to touch, as lightly as possible, upon the other reasons which the honorable delegate was pleased to advance.

The honorable Conference has noticed that the substance of the speech of the honorable delegate from Brazil has not been other in its net results than to suggest an increase in the charges.

The observations and the motions made, have not, from what may be logically deduced from them, any other scope or other result than to make the charges provided for in the report more onerous to navigation, and it is easily apparent from the beginning.

The principal suggestions of the honorable delegate may be reduced to these:

First. To take as a basis, not what we call the net tonnage, but the actual, or, as others call it, the gross tonnage, that is to say, a carrying capacity greater than that which the vessel is legally declared to have after receiving cargo, and, consequently, the charge or impost of 10 cents is multiplied by a number of tons not contemplated in the plan.

Second. That this charge be required of vessels not once a year, but each time they enter a port.

It is easy to see that this latter suggestion or conclusion tends, much more than the first, to make more burdensome the charge of 10 cents per ton provided for by the committee, for, if a vessel, say of 4,000 tons, must pay once the charge of $400, if what is now proposed be adopted, that same vessel, if it should enter the same port three or four times, would have to pay so much more, the charge thus being quadru

pled, and as this actually happens, the suggestion at once brings about the result of re-taxing the charge of 10 cents per ton.

Finally, there is another remark which emphasizes still more the conclusion necessarily to be drawn from the result which would be reached in case what the honorable delegate proposes is accepted, and it is that the charge be paid in each of the ports of the nations the vessel visits. So that if a vessel enters three, four, or five times into eight or ten different ports of the same country, it will be charged the same contribution three, four, or five times in those eight or ten different ports.

It may be seen, then, from what I have just stated, that the necessary, the inevitable result of these proposals, would be to make more onerous the charge suggested by the committee.

In this connection, Mr. President, I shall take the liberty to make, at this time (also bearing on the general aspect of the question) an observation on this point, and it is as follows:

I think it an economic error to assume that the country which collects these dues is benefited thereby. I believe that as an economic result it receives rather an injury, because of the form in which the contribution is imposed, than it would by striking it out entirely, as suggested by the committee, and this is very apparent.

The honorable Conference knows that this charge on the vessel has to be considered as a part of the freight charges on the merchandise carried; that this charge, imposed in a general way on the vessel, falls on all the cargo she carries, as well on luxuries as on

articles in general use, on ordinary commodities, and on absolute necessaries.

A cargo, then, enters a national port in a vessel burdened from the richest commodity to the poorest, from the most indispensable to the most luxurious and unnecessary. Take off the tax and in place of imposing this contribution, which is paid directly by the commodity, and consequently by the consumer-take off this impost, I say, and distribute and collect it in the form of custom-house entry dues, and then the country, changing the basis of the tax, has this considerable economic result, that the burden will fall upon luxuries and not upon necessary and indispensable commodities, thereby benefiting the classes most needing it and causing this class of contributions to be paid by those who should more properly pay them, by those who consume unnecessary articles and those of luxury.

It appears to me, Mr. President, that this observation alone is sufficient to discredit, or, better said, to lead us to reject the deductions to be drawn from remarks made by the honorable delegate from Brazil.

This, as a general idea, I repeat, and permit me to insist upon the suggestion made by the committee in this regard, to wipe out all charges or port dues, aiming at this result I have just mentioned; that is, that what the treasury of a country fails to receive from a charge affecting all commodities, can be replaced to the advantage and benefit of its population by letting it fall on luxuries and making all other commodities carried on shipboard cheaper, thus stimulating generally the public well-being and wealth.

From these general considerations I find myself

forced, and I beg the Conference will bear with me if I occupy its attention too much, to enter into the detailed examination of the principal points touched upon in his speech by the honorable delegate from Brazil.

He says that he thinks it necessary to add to the first conclusion, "consular fees excepted."

Right here I must call the attention of the honorable gentleman to the fact that the report deals solely and only with port dues; that the matter submitted to the study of the committee by the Conference is solely and exclusively that which relates to what is called port dues, and that it has limited its report to this point, for although the same committee has also received instructions to report upon the point relative to making consular fees uniform, it has not yet made its report upon this subject. There is not, then, any raison d'étre for that amendment which relates to consular fees, when treating only of port dues.

Mr. MENDONÇA. Why, then, the reference made in the report?

Mr. VARAS. I am coming to that, Mr. Delegate, if you will kindly allow me to reach that point.

The Hon. Mr. Mendonça has discovered this matter of consular fees in the circumstance that in the explanatory appendix accompanying the report there appears a charge for bills of health. Is that it, Mr Delegate?

Mr. MENDONÇA. No; it is not that; it is in the body of the report itself.

Mr. VARAS. If the honorable gentleman to whom I am replying has discovered that in the body itself of the report consular fees are included, I must state

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