Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I

No. 301.
Mr. Nelson to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States.
Mexico, March 25, 1872. (Received April 12.)

No. 534]

Sir: Herewith I transmit a copy and translation (A and B) of a decree issued on the 16th instant, by the Mexican government, facilitating to foreign vessels the pearl and other fisheries upon the Mexican coasts, and establishing regulations for the same.

I am, &c.,

THOMAS H NELSON.

[Translation B.]

Treasury Department First Section,
Mexico, March 16, 1872.

The collector of the port of Progreso having requested instructions from this Department as to the manner in which he should proceed as to the fisheries along the coasts of the republic, the President has deemed proper, in the exercise of the faculties granted him by the first clause of the eighty-fifth article of the constitution, to order that the following rules be communicated to him, and that they be applicable to all the coasts of the republic.

I. The fisheries in the waters of the republic are free to all the inhabitants thereof, as also the industry of pearl-diving and the collection of all marine productions.

II. National vessels may engage in the transportation of such productions, free of duties, without any other condition than that of inscribing the names of the vessels and crews at the nearest custom-house, the collector of which is authorized to issue the proper permit.

III. The said permit shall be annually renewed, and information thereof forwarded to the treasury department.

IV. Foreign vessels can only engage in this traffic, after presenting themselves to the proper “custom-house, at which they will pay the regular tonnage duty, which shall be for the present one dollar per ton, and they will thereupon receive a temporary permit for a term not to exceed six months.

V. To obtain such permit, it will be indispensable to register the names of the vessel, of the captain, and the crew.

VI. The number of the crew shall not exceed twenty-five.

VII. The permits above mentioned shall enable their holders to construct on the coast provisional dwellings for the preparation or storage of the products of their fishery.

VIII. In order to construct such dwellings, license shall be obtained from the nearest municipal authority, and the crews shall be subject to the laws of the republic from the moment when the license is solicited. Said license shall not be granted except in view of a permit from the proper customs authority.

IX. The municipal authority will designate the place each fishing-vessel may carry on its occupation.

X. The customs guards may at any moment visit the establishments of fishing or pearl-diving, and search the vessels engaged in such business, in order to prevent the smuggling of foreign goods under cover of this privilege.

XI. In case of seizure in the act of smuggling, vessels and utensils will be confiscated, and other penalties will be applied after the proper trial, in accordance with the provisions of the customs code.

XII. The collectors of ports, after consultation with experts, will fix the time within which pearls may be collected, so as not to admit of any danger of destroying the young pearl-oysters.

XIII. The said collectors will designate the area within which each holder of a permit may exercise his industry, marking the bounds of such space so as not to trespass on others. This area will be mentioned in the permit.

XIV. All vessels, foreign or national, that engage in this traffic without obeying these regulations and the general laws of the republic, will be mulcted by the collector of the nearest port to the point of seizure, in the amount fixed by law, and detained in such port until payment of the fine.

XV. These regulations in Spanish, English, French, and German, shall be posted in a visible spot at all custom-houses.

ROMERO.