130 REPORT ON EXCHANGES. 



also, its original inclosures, and have to ask for an expression of your 

 views in the premises, and especially as to the Belgian proposals. [In- 

 closure 9.] 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

 John Davis, 

 Acting Secretary. 



(Inclosure.) — From the Legation of the United States, Brussels, April 24, 

 1883, to the Secretary of State. 



Sir : Eeferring to your Instruction No. 26, and to my dispatches 106 

 and 107, I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy and translation of 

 a note from the Belgian Government of the 4th instant, respecting the 

 conference to draft a convention to regulate the international exchanges 

 of official documents, and scientific and literary publications. 



Immediately upon the receipt of the pamphlet, " History of the Smith- 

 sonian Exchanges," I commenced a careful examination of the question 

 to be discussed at the conference. 



The letter from the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to you of 

 February 27 last, and its accompaniment, with the pamphlet above men- 

 tioned, constituted my instructions. 



On studying the comparison made by Mr. Boehmer between the arti- 

 cles agreed upon in 1880 at Brussels, and the work done by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in regard to the exchanges, I found the principal di- 

 vergence to be in reference to article 8. The provisions of that article 

 are thus stated by him : " When documents are to be sent abroad each 

 State agrees to pay the expenses of packing and transportation to the 

 place of destination, and, when the documents are to be sent, to coun- 

 tries lying beyond the sea, to pay such expenses to the port where they 

 are to be discharged." There is no disagreement as to the cost of pack- 

 ing, but merely as to the transportation by and beyond the sea. The 

 Smithsonian's rule being " to pay the expenses of packing, &c, and to 

 deliver the boxes free of charge to the representative (generally the 

 consul) of the respective Governments at any seaport in the United 

 States, while the returns are to be delivered to the regularly ap- 

 pointed agents of the Smithsonian Institution located in the several 

 countries." 



Under the existing generous action of the various steamship liues 

 the question of ocean transportation is not a material one, but I con- 

 sidered that I should endeavor to avoid signing a draft which, if rati- 

 fied, would bind us to the payment of the ocean freight, even if we re- 

 ceived the return exchanges free of cost in our own ports. 



The new text of this article, which becomes article 6 in the present 

 draft, leaves the question of the transportation by sea a matter to be 

 fixed by special arrangements. This will permit the continuation of 

 the method pursued by the Smithsonian Institution. 



In the conference the countries represented were the United States, 



