Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 8, 1908

File No. 468/63–64.

Minister Fox to the Secretary of State.

American Legation,
Quito, April 2, 1908.

No. 239.]

Sir: I have the honor, respectfully referring to my number 222, of the 17th ultimo,¹ to inclose herewith translation of an executive decree based upon the plan submitted by Drs. Perry and Lloyd for the sanitation of Guayaquil.

I have, etc.,

Williams C. Fox.

[Inclosure—Translation.]

executive decree.

Eloy Alfaro, constitutional President of the Republic, considering that it is necessary to proceed to the definite sanitation of the city of Guayaquil, the chief port of the Republic, without omitting the extraordinary measures which the gravity of the situation demands, decrees:

• Art. 1. A special sanitary commission is hereby established in the city of Guayaquil.
• Art. 2. The commission referred to in art. 1 is to be composed of four members, who shall be appointed by the Executive.
• Art. 3. Of the four members of the commission referred to in art. 2, one, who shall be president director, must be an official licensed sanitary physician, native or foreigner; the other three, voting members.
• Art. 4. The object of the special commission is, the sanitation of the city of Guayaquil and its surroundings, the extirpation of the plague, the yellow fever, and smallpox throughout the extent of the city of Guayaquil and its surroundings (outskirts), and the establishing of domestic hygiene in the houses, by means of the methods of modern sanitary practice, with the ample powers for doing this.
• Art. 5. The work of sanitation and hygiene to which art. 4 refers shall be carried into effect by the special sanitary commission in the maximum term of two years, in accord with the memorandum on Sanitation presented to the President of the Republic by the American official sanitary physicians, Doctors J. S. Perry and Bolivar C. Lloyd, and in accord with the communication from the ministry of the interior and charity to the governor of the Province of Guayas on March 16th of the present year.
• Art. 6. The special sanitary commission shall formulate its own internal regulations, and furthermore, the general working regulations and whatever they may consider suitable to the fulfillment of their object.
• Art. 7. Under the care of the special sanitary commission of the city of Guayaquil are placed the internal organization of the lazarettes, the direction and technical regulations, provision of medical and domestic service of those establishments, and the regulations for maritime, fluvial, or land quarantines, isolation, observation, etc., within the limits of the compact subscribed to by the Government of Ecuador in the International Sanitary Convention at Washington in 1905.
• Art. 8. The superior board of health of Guayaquil and the administrative commission shall continue in the exercise of their functions, legal or authorized by the Executive, making use of their special funds in the first case to obtain for the special commission the lazarettes which the latter may need, so that efficient aid may be lent to it, and that in no way the special functions commended to said special commission by this decree be interrupted or overcome.
• Art. 9. The funds for the special sanitary commission are twenty thousand sueres monthly, of which it shall dispose for the monthly payment of the salaries of the four members of the commission, the salaries or wages of the physicians, inspectors, day laborers, and other employees it may name; the acquisition of material, etc., etc., and the maintenance of the lazarettes.
• Art. 10. The twenty thousand sucres monthly to which the ninth article refers shall be provided—five thousand by the Government, five thousand by the Guayaquil municipality, and ten thousand by the board of drainage, etc., of that city.
• Art. 11. The twenty thousand sucres monthly to which articles nine and ten refer shall be administered by the special sanitary commission of the city of Guayaquil, with subjection to the laws in force respecting the administration of public funds. The special commission shall deposit its funds in the “Banco del Ecuador” or in the “Banco Comercial y Agricola” in the city of Guayaquil, and shall draw for the sums it may spend after due appropriation of accounts and the order for payment from the governor of the Province of Guayas.
• Art. 12. The licensed official sanitary physician, directing president of the special sanitary commission of the city of Guayaquil, shall enjoy a monthly salary of one thousand sucres; the other three voting members of the commission shall enjoy each a monthly salary of five hundred sucres. The salaries, wages, or remunerations of the physicians, inspectors, employees, day laborers, which the commission may appoint the latter shall fix in a monthly estimate, obtaining the express approbation of the governor of the Province of Guayas.
• Art. 13. The official sanitary physician, directing president of the special sanitary commission of the city of Guayaquil, has the power to appoint and remove the employees under him, and even the other members of the commission if necessary, but must give account of it to the governor of the Province of Guayas, so that the latter authority may communicate same to the Supreme Government.
• Art. 14. The municipal police and that of order and security, through the proper organ, shall second and uphold efficiently the special sanitary commission of the city of Guayaquil in the performance of the functions commended to it by the Executive in the present decree.
• Art. 15. Should the special sanitary commission of the city of Guayaquil, in the performance of its duties, meet with obstacles of so grave a nature that it could not overcome them by itself, it shall consult with the Executive.
• Art. 16. Charged with the execution of the present decree are the minister of the interior in the department of public charity and the minister of finance.

Given in the national palace, in Quito, March 24th, 1908.

(Signed) Eloy Alfaro.
The minister of the interior, public charity, etc.:
(Signed) Amalio Puga.
The minister of finance:
(Signed) B. V. Torres.
The above is a copy.
(Signed) V. M. Arregui,
Government Under Secretary.

1. Not printed.