Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 63 Part 3.djvu/428

 63 STAT.] HONDURAS-HEALTH AND SANITATION--Ju . - 26 1949 2733 Aug. 18, 24, 1949 the contribution of the said Institute, during the period of extension, will be $50,000.00 in United States currency, on condition that our Government's contribution to the Servicio for the same purpose will be a sum not less than L. 500,000.00. - It will also be understood that if our Government should not be in a position to contribute the aforesaid sum, then the Institute's contribution would be at the rate of one-fifth of the amount determined by the Honduran Government. Due note has been taken of the fact that the Institute is willing to continue making funds available for the payment of salaries and other expenses of the members of the Health and Sanitation field staff who are maintained by the Institute in Honduras, which funds will be administered by the Institute and not deposited to the account of the Servicio. - With respect to the proportion of the funds to be con- tributed for carrying out activities of the program of the Servicio Cooperative, our Government has stated on several occasions in personal conversations held by the undersigned with some of the members of the ScrIs, that it would be impossible for it to extend the contract at the rate of one to five as indicated by the note of His Excellency the American Ambassador, which rate has been determined by the appropriate authorities in Washington. - Our present General Budget for Sanitation allocates an appropriation of L. 150,000.00 for the current fiscal year for carrying out the Servicio Cooperative projects; and in addition, under date of January 31 of the present year, by Decree No. 44, the National Congress established an addi- tional custom duty, assigning the proceeds therefrom to the supplying of potable water for various towns in the Republic, the collection of which duty was to begin on the first of July last, but certain exemp- tions therefrom were made in that Decree, such as on heavy machinery, barbed wire for fences, and imports of articles covered by commercial treaties like those which we have concluded with the Government of El Salvador and with the Government of the United States of America. - As a result of this, the proceeds from such source, estimated in the Budget at L. 275,000.00 per annum, with an average of L. 23,000.00 per month, amounted only to L. 6,382.02 in July last, from which it may be deduced that its total proceeds will be about L. 75,000.00 in the current year. - Thus, if to the L. 150,000.00 included in the Budget for carrying out the Servicio Cooperativo projects there is added the sum of L. 75,000.00 as the probable proceeds from the newly created source of revenue for the water supply, plus another L. 75,000.00 which might possibly be contributed by the various districts and municipalities for the works actually constructed under the projects approved, the result would be that the probable contribu- tion of the Government would amount to L. 300,000.00, which would yield a rate of one to three if the Institute of Inter-American Affairs were to contribute L. 100,000.00 or its equivalent in dollars at the exchange rate of 2 to 1. - Of course, it might happen that in the course of the year the new revenue might reach L. 100,000.00 and that the districts anid municipalities might be in a position to contribute up to another L. 100,000.00, which would yield a rate of one to three and one-half between the parties, but this is simply a probability and not a

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