Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/108

 Rh If, in the preparation of both lists and in the fixing of the protective duties, there shall be an agreement between the two governments, the lists shall be considered definitive and shall be adopted at once. If there shall be any disagreement, the point in dispute shall be submitted for decision to a commission of deputies of the Kingdom, consisting equally of natives of Cuba and of the Peninsula. This commission shall choose its president. If no agreement shall he reached concerning his appointment, the oldest officer shall preside. The president shall have a vote by virtue of his office.

(3) The tables of valuations for the articles enumerated in the two lists mentioned in the foregoing number shall be adopted by common consent, and shall be revised every two years, a hearing being granted to both parties. The modifications which it shall be proper to make, in view thereof, in the tariff, shall be at once carried out by the respective governments.

The supreme government of the colony shall be vested in a governor-general, who shall be appointed by the King, on motion of the council of ministers. In this capacity he shall exercise, as a vice-royal patron, the powers inherent in the patronate of the Indies; he shall have the chief command of all the armed forces, both naval and military, in the island; he shall be the representative of the minisistries [sic] of state, war, navy, and the colonies; all the authorities of the island shall be subordinate to him, and he shall be responsible for the preservation of order and of the safety of the colony.

The Governor-General, before assuming the duties of his office, shall make oath before the King that he will perform them faithfully and loyally.

The Governor-General, as the representative of the nation, shall perform by himself, and assisted by his secretaries, all the duties mentioned in the foregoing articles, and that may be incumbent upon him as the direct representative of the King in matters of a national character. It shall be the duty of the Governor-General, as the representative of the mother country:

(1) To designate freely the employees of his secretariat.

(2) To publish, execute, and cause to be executed on the island the laws, decrees, treaties, international conventions, and other instruments emanating from the legislative branch of the Government, and likewise the decrees, royal orders, and other instruments emanating from the executive branch that shall be communicated to him by the ministries, whose representative he is.

When, in his judgment, and that of the secretaries of his administration, the decisions of Her Majesty's Government might cause injury to the general interests of the nation, or to the special interests of the island, he shall suspend their publication and execution, making a report thereof and of the causes upon which his decision is based to the proper ministry.

(3) To exercise the pardoning power in the name of the King within the limits which shall have been specially marked out for him in his instructions, and to suspend the execution of capital punishment in cases in which the gravity of the circumstances may demand it, or the urgency of the case may not allow time to solicit and obtain pardon from Her Majesty, the opinion of the secretaries being heard in all cases.

(4) To suspend the guaranties named in articles 4, 5, 6, and 9, and paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of article 13, of the constitution of the State, to enforce the laws relative to public order, and to take all such measures as he may deem necessary for the preservation of peace within, and of security outside of the territory that is intrusted to him, the council of secretaries being previously heard.

(5) To take care that justice be speedily and properly administered in the colony, in which it shall always be administered in the name of the King.

(6) To communicate directly concerning matters of external policy with the representatives, diplomatic agents, and consuls of Spain in America.

Correspondence of this kind shall be communicated in its entirety and simultaneously to the minister of state.

It shall he the duty of the Governor-General, as the superior authority of the island and the head of its administration:

(1) To take care that the rights, powers, and privileges recognized or hereafter to be recognized as belonging to the colonial administration, be duly respected and upheld.

(2) To sanction and publish the enactments of the insular parliament, which shall be laid before him by the president and secretaries of the respective chambers.

When the Governor-General shall consider that an enactment of the insular parliament goes beyond the powers of that body, violates the rights of citizens which are recognized in Title I of the constitution, or the guarantees fixed by law for the exercise of those rights, or jeopardizes the interests of the colony or of the State, he