by the receiving office or by the Commissioner appointed for that purpose;

(v.) In case the office which in accordance with the foregoing laws ought to issue a liquidation or certificate should have been suppressed, the document shall be furnished by the office in whose charge the archives exist;

(vi.) When the credit is for arrears of salaries, allowances to families of public servants, pensions, remunerations, and other unpaid balances of Badgets previous to the 1st July, 1882, the Committee shall obtain the respective liquidation from the TreasuryGeneral;

(vii.) The value of the proofs which may be submitted shall be determined in conformity with the provisions of the present Decree, and, failing that, with those of the Code of Civil Proceedings of the Federal district;

(viii.) When there may be reasons for suspecting that false proofs or documents have been presented, and, in general, that a punishable offence has been committed, the case shall be submitted to the competent authority, all proceedings in the formation of the "dossier" being suspended, and the Ministry of Finance being notified in order that it may determine what action shall be taken;

(ix.) It shall liquidate the credits arising from allowances to families of public servants, or civil or military pensions, from the date of the issue of the grant, or, failing that, from the date of the respective declaration.

55. When on the examination of a credit it may prove to be comprised in clause 9 of Article 1 of the Law of the 14th June, 1883, and that, whatever the date may be, a solution strictly in accordance with the Law is impossible, the Liquidating Committee shall mention this in their decision, and shall propose to the Ministry of Finance equitable bases which, in conformity with the said principle, may, in their opinion, be of service for bringing the liquidation to an end.

56. The decisions of the Liquidating Committee shall be made known to the interested parties in the manner provided by Article 50, and if the latter consent, or if within eight days of being notified they do not object, they shall be considered as consenting, and the conversion shall be carried out for the sum which may be due to them as the result of the decision in question.

57. If in proper time an objection should be made before the Liquidating Committee, the "dossier" shall be at once handed over to the Ministry of Finance, to which Department the interested parties can apply, setting forth anything which it may suit their interest to do, in regard to the decision appealed against, within

a month from the date of the latter; but they shall not be able to produce any additional proof unless the said Department should decide to the contrary.

The decision of the President of the Republic shall be final, and all recourse, of whatever kind, which may be attempted against it shall be at once rejected, as well by the administrative as by the judicial authorities.

58. Decisions which may be given on a claim in which various parties may be interested, whether conjointly or not, and which may have been presented by one of the parties only, in respect to the part belonging to him, shall produce the same effects and carry the same weight as a case definitely decided, in so far as regards the remaining parts of the claim which, subsequent to the said decision, may be presented by any other of the joint owners.

59. On a credit or claim being recognized and liquidated, the respective entries shall be made in a book which shall be opened for this purpose, each entry being certified by the signature of one of the members of the Committee. The respective registers shall likewise be annotated, and a certificate shall be issued to the interested party, taken from a book with counterfoil in order that he may apply to the Treasury-General of the nation to receive the bonds belonging to him. The Liquidating Committee, the Treasury, and the interested parties shall be subject, as far as they are concerned, to the provisions of the Supreme Order of the 17th November, 1886, and to those relating to the same which explain or modify it.

60. A "dossier" once finished, all the documents of which it is composed shall be cancelled by means of a punch, which will allow of the whole of the text of the said documents being read.

If the credit, security, or claim should be rejected, the respective documents shall be returned to the interested party if he asks for them within the period of one year, after cancellation by means of a punch, the reason for the rejection of the credit, security, or claim. being specified on the first and last pages.

61. If the documents which prove the responsibility of the Government form part of protocols of notaries or of "dossiers" or archives of public officers, they shall be cancelled for account of the interested parties and the respective minutes shall be entered on the originals, before the issue of the order for the delivery of the corresponding bonds.

Section V.-Regarding the Exchange of Bonds and the Operations of the Treasury.

62. The Treasury-General of the nation shall have charge of the delivery of the new bonds, subject to the provisions of this Decree

and to the instructions which it may receive from the Ministry of Finance.

63. The same office shall continue to issue the receipts for arrears of salaries provided for by Article 5 of the Law of the 14th June, 1883, and the Supreme Order of the 28th May, 1886, provided that the interested parties expressly request it, and that, when dealing with arrears of salaries subsequent to the 30th June, 1882, they are not comprised in Article 17 of this Decree; but if the said certificates, as also those issued previous to the present Decree, were not converted at the proper time, they shall lose the privileges granted to them by Article 6 of the Law of the 14th June,

1883.

This provision does not prevent the Treasury from issuing at once to those so desiring, the bonds of the 3 per Cent. Internal Consolidated Debt to which they may be entitled, instead of the corresponding certificates for arrears of salaries.

64. The credits of the first and second-class mentioned in Article 5 which may not need investigation shall be converted by the Treasury-General at the request of the interested parties and according to the information elicited from the respective accounts, provided that they are not the unpaid balances referred to in Article 67; but the conversion of the credits of the first-class cannot be made without the previous authorization of the Ministry of Finance, which, in case of doubt as to the classification which should be given to a credit in accordance with Article 5 may declare it to be comprised in the first-class; but making such a reduction from the credit as it may think just, after having heard the interested parties.

65. It is understood that those credits do not need investigation which (the interested parties being entirely in accord with the account of the Treasury, both as regards the amount and the other circumstances required to be attended to before conversion) have not been the subject of observations on the part of the said Treasury or of the Accountant-General's Department, nor of special judicial or administrative orders, suspending the payment or fixing conditions for the carrying out of the same.

In these last cases the Treasury shall advise the Ministry of Finance, which shall decide as it may see fit.

66. The holders of securities comprehended under Article 6 of the present Decree who may desire to avail themselves of the conversion shall apply to the Ministry of Finance in order that, after the necessary steps have been taken, the proportion may be determined in which the exchange of the new titles for the old is to be made in accordance with the provisions of Article 11. This proportion once determined, the said Ministry shall not change it in favour of other [1893-94. LXXXVI.] 4 M

holders of the same class of securities, who shall have the right, when they wish to avail themselves of the conversion, to apply direct to the Treasury for the exchange, in accordance with the basis already established.

67. The unpaid balances of budgets for orders issued in favour of paymasters or persons authorized to make payments, and which on account of the respective loan or payment not having been made at the proper time were not confirmed in subsequent budgets, as also balances of orders issued in favour of corporations, companies, or private individuals in the shape of gratuitous subventions or voluntary help, or for transactions or loans which were not carried into effect, shall not give a right to any claim against the Government, and such balances shall be at once cancelled by the Treasury, with the previous approval, in each case, of the Ministry of Finance.

68. The formalities for the interchange of securities which have to be converted into bonds of the 3 per Cent. Consolidated Debt may be proceeded with at once; and those for the interchange of the securities which have to be converted into bonds of the 5 per Cent. Internal Redeemable Debt shall be effected from the 1st day of October next, by means of provisional certificates, whilst the definitive bonds are being printed, sealed, and signed.

69. In all operations of interchange of securities the Treasury shall be careful when issuing the new bonds to remove and destroy all coupons already matured at the date of the exchange, including those of the current half-year. In the case of interest-bearing securities, and only in that case, the interest on the old securities shall be liquidated up to the day of the exchange, and also that on the new bonds from the day after the exchange until the date of the coupon removed; and the value of both liquidations shall be paid to the interested party in the following manner: if the said sum should exceed the value of one coupon of the new bonds, he shall be given these with the current coupon, besides an order payable the day on which the said coupon matures for the balance; but if the value of the liquidations should not amount to the value of one coupon, the interested party can at his option receive the current coupon, paying the difference at once in cash, or else receive the title without the said coupon, and an order for the amount of the liquidation payable in the above-mentioned manner. These rules shall likewise be observed in the exchange of interest-bearing securities for the provisional certificates referred to in the preceding Article. For this purpose the said certificates shall be issued with the coupon corresponding to the half-year ending the 31st March, 1895, the said coupon being removed should the occasion mentioned in the preceding paragraph arise.

The provisional certificates which may be issued before 1st April, 1895, for the conversion of non-interest-bearing credits, and which consequently have no coupon attached, shall be exchanged for definitive bonds carrying coupons commencing with the one corresponding to the half-year from April to September; and the certificates of the same kind which may be issued from the 1st April, 1895, to the 30th September of the same year, shall have attached, as the first coupon, that corresponding to the half-year following that of its issue, but in both cases the interested parties may claim that the bonds shall have the current coupon attached on payment of its value in cash.

70. The certificates, bonds, coupons, and other documents which may be received in the Treasury in exchange for new bonds shall be immediately rendered useless by punching a hole in the middle. Any delay in this operation involves a presumption of fraud, and will give rise to the committal of the employé who is responsible for it.

71. If on making the exchange of bonds or on issuing new bonds in payment of credits or claims already investigated, there should remain over amounts less than the value of the smallest bonds issued, the interested parties can, at their option, hand over in cash the amount which may be wanting to complete the value of the said bond, or give up in favour of the Federal Treasury the amount of the said balance.

72. The Treasury shall advise the Ministry of Finance monthly of the operations of conversion which have been effected, stating in detail the class, number, and value of the bonds issued and distinguishing those given for credits or claims decided by the Liquidating Committee from those issued as the result of exchanges effected exclusively by the Treasury. These notices shall be published in the Official Journal ("Diario Oficial").

73. Any doubts which may arise as to the meaning and application of the present Decree shall be decided by the Ministry of Finance.

Wherefore I order this to be printed, published, circulated, and duly carried out.

Given at the National Palace of Mexico, the 6th September,

1894.

PORFIRIO DIAZ.