Three white Fixed Lights, similarly placed, but not the ordinary riding light.

21. In narrow waters or in rivers, harbors, etc., under the jurisdiction of local authorities, the same rules may be adopted, or at discretion, varied as follows:

When a wreck-marking vessel is used she shall carry a crossyard on a mast with two balls by day placed horizontally not less than 6 nor more than 12 feet apart, and two lights by night similarly placed. When a barge or open boat only is used, a flag or ball may be shown in the day time.

22. The position in which the marking-vessel is placed with reference to the wreck, shall be at the discretion of the local authority having jurisdiction.

NOTE.-In Russia no buoys are used as seamarks in the open sea; to comply with the system proposed, it is only necessary to alter the color of the seamarks actually in use accordingly.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE UPON GENERAL

DIVISION 13 OF THE PROGRAMME.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PERMANENT MARITIME COMMISSION.

(a) The composition of the Commission.

(b) Its powers and authority.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PERMANENT INTERNATIONAL MARINE COMMISSION.

Admiral S. R. FRANKLIN,

WASHINGTON, November 26, 1889.

President of the International Marine Conference, etc.:

SIR: Your committee have considered the above matter, and beg to report as follows:

At the commencement of our proceedings we invited our colleagues and the secretaries to the Conference to furnish us with the proposals, if any, prepared by Governments of the several powers taking part in the Conference, or of any private societies or persons, bearing upon the subject in question. We have not succeeded in ascertaining that there are any such proposals in existence save the documents set out in the appendices hereto, A, B, C, D, and E.

We have considered whether such a commission could be instituted with a practical result, and in such a manner as to lead to its adoption by the maritime powers.

However desirable such a result would be, a majority of your committee do not believe it to be possible to carry it into effect, and are of

opinion that it can not be regarded as one of practical feasibility at the present time.

We have also decided, by a majority of votes, that it is not possible to create an International Tribunal to try questions of collisions between subjects of different nationalities.

In coming to this conclusion, we have been guided, amongst others, by the following considerations:

An International Commission could not be invested with any legis lative power. It would be a consulting body only, constituted with the view of preparing universal legislation on maritime matters of international importance. Apart altogether from the difficulties connected with the formation of such a body, the questions as to its domicile, as to who are to be its members, and how and by whom the members are to be compensated for their labors-difficulties which by themselves seem to be entirely unsurmountable for the present-it seems to your committee that such a consulting body of experts would not serve the purpose for which it is intended to be created, viz, that of facilitating the introduction of reforms in maritime legislation, because the advice given by such a commission would not in any way enable the Govern ments of the maritime nations to dispense with the necessity of considering the subjects laid before them and laying the proposals made to them, if adopted, before the legislative bodies of the different States.

The consequence of instituting a body like that in question on the contrary would, it appears, be this: That merely another investigation of any scheme proposed with a view to reforming international maritime laws would have to be gone through before the opinions of the Governments could be taken, and thus the course of procedure as it is nowby correspondence between the different Governments-would be made more complicated instead of being simplified. For these reasons your committee beg to propose to resolve:

That for the present the establishment of a permanent International Maritime Commission is not considered expedient.

We have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servants,

I regret that I am unable to sign this report, as its general tenor varies too much from the views entertained by the maritime associations in my country on the important question mentioned in General Division 13 of the programme.

I have endeavored to explain the views in this respect of the said associations, as well as my own opinion, in a letter to the present committee, which is laid before the Conference as Appendix C to the com. mittee's report.

AUG. SCHNEIDER,
Delegate for Denmark.

APPENDIX A.

MEMORANDUM CONCERNING A PROPOSED PERMANENT INTERNATIONAL MERCHANT SHIPPING COMMISSION.

[Prepared by the Committee of the Second Northern Maritime Conference, September, 1888.]

INTRODUCTION.

At the second Conference (the first was held in Gothenburg in the year 1883) of northern (Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Danish) delegates from various ship-owners'),* master mariners', underwriters', etc., associations and societies held in Copenhagen in the first days of July, 1888-under the leadership of C. F. Tietgen, esq., chairman of the Copenhagen Chamber of Commerce, and in the presence of several ministers of state, foreign ministers and consuls, government maritime officials, etc.-the proceedings commenced with the discussion of the following question:

"On the establishment of a Permanent International Merchant Shipping Commission."

After a full discussion the following resolution was adopted unanimously:

"The development of the shipping trade which has taken place during the last years, having given rise to a great number of questions of which the satisfactory solution is of the utmost importance to the trade,

"The Conference resolves:

"That this object best can be attained by the establishment of a Permanent International Commission-and requests the committee of the Conference to present a memorandum to this effect to the Maritime Congress which is to be held at Washington in the last days of April next year and to apply to the

* Representing a merchant fleet of above 2,000,000 register tons, the Scandinavian vessels thus to be placed as No. 3 on the list, No. 1 being the English, No. 2 the United States, No. 4 the German, and No. 5 the French merchant fleet.

governments of the northern states to submit the said resolution with their recommendation to the great European powers and the United States of America."

In compliance with the first part of this resolution the committee has appointed the undersigned to inquire into and report on the question, and in fulfillment of this request we now have the honor to present this memorandum to the said Congress, and in doing so we propose to divide the memorandum in four parts, viz:

Part I, containing the main points of the discussion; Part II, containing a detailed statement of the development of international maritime agreements, with notes referring to Part III, consisting of an Appendix, containing the necessary information as to the respective merchant shipping laws and regulations, the opinions or proposals of influential societies or experts, and references to the nautical works made use of. For the sake of convenience we have also divided Part II in four divisions:

(a) Under division 1 we have collected and propose to treat the international agreements which have been adopted by the governments of almost all maritime states, as "The rule of the road at sea," "The international code of signals," "Signals of distress and for pilots," "International tonnage measurement," etc

(b) Under division 2 we propose to discuss some other merchant shipping laws or regulatious, in the adoption of which by the other maritime states Great Britain has taken an interest, which, as yet, has nearly been without result; for instance, the laws on "Official inquiries into shipwrecks, strandings," etc.; "Preventive regulations as to the sending to sea of unseaworthy ships'"; "The British system of marking and lettering of the names of ships and their home ports, register tonnage and draught scale of feet," etc.

(e) Under division 3 we propose to give an outline of some other mercantile shipping affairs of a more private judicial nature, which in our opinion seem well adapted to be considered as being of an international character, and, therefore, ought to be treated with due regard to such character.

(d) In division 4 we have wound up our views as to the usefulness of the proposed Permanent International Merchant Shipping Commission, its eventual composition, mode of action, expenses, etc.

Lastly, in Part IV, we propose to state the reasons for another resolution, which we are charged by the Conference to bring to the knowledge of the Congress, namely, about the question, "What can be done to diminish the danger which threatens the navigation by floating wrecks?" which, also, was discussed during the Conference.