TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.

ART. 1. With a view to carry out the transition from the present régime to the system hereby established with the greatest possible dispatch and the least interruption of the public business, the GovernorGeneral shall, whenever he deems it timely and after consulting the home Government, appoint the secretaries of the executive office as per article 45 of this decree, and with their aid he shall conduct the local government of the island until the insular chambers shall have been constituted. The secretaries thus appointed shall vacate their offices as soon as the Governor-General shall take his oath of office before the insular chambers, and the Governor-General shall immediately appoint as their successors the members of parliament who, in his judgment, most fully represent the majorities in the chamber of representatives and the council of administration.

ART. 2. The manner of meeting the expenditures occasioned by the debt now weighing upon the Spanish and Cuban treasuries, and the debt that may be contracted until the termination of the war, shall be determined by a law fixing the share that shall be borne by each treasury, and the special ways and means for the payment of the interest, and the sinking fund, and for refunding the principal in due time.

Until the Cortes of the Kingdom shall decide this point no changes shall be made in the conditions under which said debts were contracted, nor in the payment of the interest, nor provisions for a sinking fund, nor in the guarantees which they enjoy, nor in the actual terms of payment.

When the Cortes shall have apportioned the shares, each of the two treasuries shall take upon itself the payment of the share allotted. In no event shall the obligations contracted towards the lenders on the faith of the Spanish nation cease to be scrupulously respected. Issued in the Palace, Madrid, November 25, 1897.

The President of the Council of Ministers,

MARIA CRISTINA.

PRAXEDES MATEO SAGASTA.

IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS FOR THE

ISLAND OF PORTO RICO.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

DIVISION OF CUSTOMS AND INSULAR AFFAIRS,
JUNE 7, 1899.

PROMULGATING ORDER.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, June 6, 1899. In accordance with the provisions of Circular No. 13, Division of Customs and Insular Affairs, dated April 14, 1899, the following Immigration Regulations as applied to the Island of Porto Rico are hereby published for the information and guidance of all concerned.

G. D. MEIKLEJOHN,

Acting Secretary of War.