Correspondents of the Bureau of International Exchanges-Continued.

The special exchange list for the distribution of Smithsonian documents is also in need of revision and correction. It was prepared many years ago, and not a few of the libraries to which it was deemed proper at the time to send these publications have sunk into obscurity, while many new libraries have been established to which it seems desirable that Smithsonian documents should be sent. A considerable number of requests are received each year inviting an exchange of publications, or requests for the completion of the Smithsonian series of documents, with which it is rarely practicable to comply. This work has been begun, but had not been completed at the close of the year.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS.

Under the treaty of Brussels of 1886, the text of which is given below,* the exchange of the official publications of the United States Government with other countries has been continued by the Institution, and it now forms a very large proportion of the Bureau's work.

* CONVENTION CONCERNING THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES FOR OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS AND SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY PUBLICATIONS.

[Translation from the French.]

The President of the United States of America, His Majesty the King of the Belgians, His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, His Majesty the King of Italy, His Majesty the King of Portugal and of the Algarves, His Majesty the King of Servia, the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, desiring to establish, on the basis adopted by the conference which met at Brussels from the 10th to the 14th April, 1883, a system of international exchanges of the official documents and of the scientific and literary publications of their respective States, have appointed for their plenipotentiaries, to wit:

The President of the United States of America, Mr. Lambert Tree, minister resident of the United States of America at Brussels: jesty the King of the Belgians,

The entire number of pu

SECRETARY.

blications sent

61

abroad during the year under the provisions

of the act of Congress of March 2, 1867, and of the treaty above referred to, was 23,023, and there have been received in return 974 packages. The United States Government Departments have forwarded to their correspondents abroad 37,871 packages, and have received in return 14,813 packages. The total number of exchanges for Government libraries has therefore been 15,787 packages received and 37,871 packages sent abroad, a total of 76,681 packages, or about 71 per cent of the entire

number handled.

The very inadequate return for the great number of documents sent out is in part undoubtedly due to the fact that no other country publishes on such a lavish scale as Direct solicitation made by a special representative to the Governments with which the Institution is in correspondence would also probably result in a considerable increase to the Library of Congress.

our own.

the Prince de Caraman, his minister of foreign affairs, and the Chevalier de Moreau, his minister of agriculture, industry, and public works,

His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, the Count de Villeneuve, his envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians,

Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, Mr. de Tavira, chargé d'affaires ad interim of Spain at Brussels,

His Majesty the King of Italy, the Marquis Maffei, his envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians,

His Majesty the King of Portugal and of the Algarves, the Baron de Sant'Anna, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Very Faithful Majesty, His Majesty the King of Servia, Mr. Marinovitch, his envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians,

The Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, Mr. Rivier, its special plenipotentiary,

Who, after having communicated between themselves their full powers, which are found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles:

ARTICLE I. There shall be established in each of the contracting States, a bureau charged with the duty of the exchanges.

ART. II. The publications which the contracting States agree to exchange are the following:

1st. The official documents, parliamentary and administrative, which are published in the country of their origin.

2nd. The works executed by order and at the expense of the Government.

ART. III. Each bureau shall cause to be printed a list of the publications that it is able to place at the disposal of the contracting States.

This list shall be corrected and completed each year and regularly addressed to all the bureaus of exchange.

ART. IV. The bureaus of exchange will arrange between themselves the number of copies which they may be able eventually to demand and furnish.

ART. V. The transmission shall be made directly from bureau to bureau. Uniform models and formulas will be adopted for the memoranda of the contents of the cases, as well as for all the administrative correspondence, requests, acknowledgments of reception, etc.

ART. VI. For exterior transmissions, each State assumes the expense of packing and transportation to the place of destination. Nevertheless, when the transmissions shall be made by sea, special arrangements will regulate the share of each State in the expense of transportation.

ART. VII. The bureaus of exchange will serve, in an official capacity, as intermediaries between the learned bodies and literary and scientific societies, etc.,

of the contracting States for the reception and transmission of their publications. It remains, however, well understood that, in such case, the duty of the bureaus of exchange will be confined to the free transmission of the works exchanged, and

A large surplus of Government documents available for foreign exchanges has now accumulated, the number of foreign Governments with which exchange relations have been arranged not requiring at present the entire number received from the printing office. The proper storage of these documents has now become a serious problem.

that these bureaus will not in any manner take the initiative to bring about the establishment of such relations.

ART. VIII. These provisions apply only to the documents and works published after the date of the present convention.

ART. IX. The States which have not taken part in the present convention are admitted to adhere to it on their request.

This adhesion will be notified diplomatically to the Belgian Government, and by that Government to all the other signatory States.

ART. X. The present convention will be ratified and the ratifications will be exchanged at Brussels as soon as practicable. It is concluded for ten years from the day of the exchange of ratifications, and it will remain in force beyond that time, so long as one of the Governments shall not have declared six months in advance that it renounces it.

In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed it and have thereunto affixed their seals.

Done at Brussels in eight copies the 15th of March, 1886.

63

The exchange on account of Government bureaus is shown in detail in the following

table:

Statement of Government exchanges during the year, 1894–95.

Name of bureau.

Packages

Received Sent
by.

for.

Name of bureau.

Packages

Received Sent for.

by.

2

U. S. Interior Department........

1

U. S. Interstate

Commerce

220

12,739

Commission.

1

U. S. Light-House Board...

1

U. S. Marine-Hospital Service.

3

U. S. Bureau of American Re

U.S. Mint.

2

I venture to again call attention to the unsatisfactory condition of the exchange relations with Greece, which are in the same state as a year ago, when, on account of the expenses attending the distribution of packages, the transmission of miscellaneous exchanges was discontinued by request of the librarian of the United National and University libraries, formerly acting as the medium for distributing publications. The exchange with Mexico is still also in an extremely unsatisfactory condition, and the transmission of the parliamentary documents to the Mexican Government has been suspended awaiting some action by the Mexican authorities, to whose attention the matter was brought through the Mexican minister.

I am glad to report that the comparatively large repayments made to the Smithsonian Institution by Government bureaus for the transmission of their exchanges have enabled the Bureau to employ some additional assistance, by which means it has become possible to bring up to a great extent the records that during the past year had fallen into arrears. It was also found practicable to make a slight increase in the regular working force of the Bureau, and I take pleasure in bearing witness to the efficiency of the employees in the exchange office, and in expressing apprecia

tion of their efforts to dispose of all the accumulations of the preceding year and to keep up with the added volume of work, and I beg leave to call to your notice the careful attention to the interests of the Institution on the part of its special agents abroad, Dr. Felix Flügel, in Leipsic, and Messrs. William Wesley & Son, in London. Grateful acknowledgments are also due to the following transportation companies and others for their liberality in granting the privilege of free freight or in otherwise assisting in the transmission of exchange parcels and boxes, while to other firms thanks are due for reduced rates of transportation in consideration of the disinterested services of the Institution in the diffusion of knowledge:

LIST OF SHIPPING AGENTS AND CONSULS TO WHOM THE EXCHANGE SERVICE IS INDEBTED FOR SPECIAL COURTESIES.

Royal Portuguese consul-general, New York.

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston.
Anchor Steamship Line (Henderson & Bro., agents), New York.
Atlas Steamship Company (Pim, Forwood & Co.), New York.
Bailey, H. B., & Co., New York.

Börs, C., cousul-general for Sweden and Norway, New York.
Boulton, Bliss & Dallett, New York.

Calderon, Climaco, consul-general for Colombia, New York.

Cameron, R. W., & Co., New York.

Baltazzi, X., consul-general for Turkey, New York.

Columbian Line (Stamford Parry, Herron & Co., agents), New York.

Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (A. Forget, agent), New York.

Cunard Royal Mail Steamship Company (Vernon H. Brown & Co., agents), New York. Espriella, Justo R. de la, consul-general for Chile, New York.

Hamburg-American Packet Company (R. J. Cortis, manager), New York.

Hensel, Bruckmann & Lorbacher, New York.

Consul-general for Uruguay, Baltimore, Md.

Muñoz y Espriella, New York.

Navigazione Generale Italiana (Phelps Bros. & Co.), New York.

Netherlands-American Steam Navigation Company (W. H. Vanden Toorn, agent), New York.

North German Lloyd (agents: Oelrichs & Co., New York; A. Schumacher & Co., Baltimore).

Obarrio, Melchor, consul-general for Bolivia, New York.

Pacific Mail Steamship Company (H. J. Bullay, superintendent), New York.

Pioneer Line (R. W. Cameron & Co.), New York.

Perry, Ed., & Co., New York.

Pomares, Mariano, consul-general for Salvador, New York.

Red Star Line (Peter Wright & Sons, agents), New York and Philadelphia.
Röhl, C., consul-general for Argentina, New York.

Royal Danish consul, New York.

Ruiz, Domingo L., consul-general for Ecuador.

Stewart, Alexander, consul-general for Paraguay, Wachington, D. C.

Toriello, Enrique, consul-general for Guatemala, New York.

White Cross Line of Antwerp (Funch, Edye & Co.), New York.

LIST OF THE CORRESPONDENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN THROUGH WHOM INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES ARE TRANSMITTED.

Algeria: Bureau Français des Échanges Internationaux, Paris, France.

Argentina: Museo Nacional, Buenos Ayres.

Austria-Hungary: Dr. Felix Flügel, Schenkendorf-Strasse 9, Leipzig, Germany. Brazil: Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio Janeiro.

Belgium: Commission des Échanges Internationaux, Rue du Musée, No. 5, Brussels. Bolivia: University, Chuquisaca.

British America: McGill College, Montreal, and Geological Survey Office, Ottawa. British Colonies: Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, England.