File No. 5727/59.
The French Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
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 [Page 493] 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.,