Office of the Historian

No. 315.
Sir Edward Thornton to Mr. Hunter.

Newburyport, September 13, 1879.

Sir: In compliance with an instruction which I have received from the Marquis of Salisbury, I have the honor to transmit herewith translation of a law passed by the Colombian legislature relative to the custody of ships’ registers in Colombian ports, and to invite your attention to the third article of that law.

Her Majesty’s Minister at Bogotá has expressed the opinion that there are objections to that article, but believes that it is based upon the terms of a convention between the minister of the United States at Bogota and the late Colombian secretary for foreign affairs.

I am, therefore, instructed to state that Her Majesty’s Government would be glad to be informed whether that convention has been approved by the Government of the United States, and what view is taken by it of the new Colombian law.

I have, &c.,

EDW’D THORNTON.
[Page 489]
[Inclosure in Sir Edward Thornton’s note of September 13, 1879.]

Law No. 40, of 1879 (June 24), revising law No 60, of 1875.—Translation.

The Congress of the United States of Colombia decrees:

  • Article I. All merchant-vessels touching at the ports of the Republic shall present to the collector of customs or the comptroller of the port their registers or other papers. The said papers shall be immediately deposited with the consular agent of the country to which the ship belongs, who shall be obliged to give a certificate stating that said papers have been delivered to him, to the collector of customs or the comptroller at the port. The captain of a vessel failing to fulfill this enactment shall become liable to a fine of from one [five?—E. T.] hundred to one thousand dollars ($500 to $1,000), the amount to be determined by the collector of customs or the comptroller of the port in his stead.
  • Article II. Foreign consular agents at the ports of the Republic shall, on receiving the register and other papers appertaining to a vessel of their nation touching at the port, draw up a certificate to that effect, which shall be delivered to the collector of customs or the comptroller at the port.
  • Article III. The said consular agents shall not return the register and other papers to the captain who shall have deposited them, till the clearance, issued by the proper authority, shall have been presented to them.
  • The returning of a ship’s register and other papers without the necessary clearance issued by the competent national authority, having been previously produced, shall be considered a sufficient cause for the withdrawal of the exequatur or permission to act from a consul, vice-consul, or consular-agent, as the case may be.
  • Article IV. The fines and other punishments referred to in this law may be reduced or altogether condoned by the executive power whenever the person on whom their shall have been imposed shall produce sufficient proofs of his innocence.

Given at Bogotá on the 23d of June, 1879.