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turers of egg noodles and similar products in that State have complied with the statutes, using no coloring whatever, except such as is imparted by the eggs themselves, and adds that he sees no hardship in requiring a similar compliance with the law on the part of foreign manufacturers.

Accept, etc.,

ROBERT BACON.

The Italian Chargé to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

ROYAL EMBASSY OF ITALY,
Washington, April 24, 1906.

Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: I appeal to your excellency's tried courtesy to the end that you may be pleased to transmit to his excellency the Secretary of Agriculture the inclosed petition addressed to him by some importers of Italian paste in New York. At the same time I would be very thankful if you would point out to your most excellent colleague the special object of the request made of him. The Italian importers want nothing more than a short postponement of the enforcement of the new regulations so as to enable the paste manufacturers to comply with its requirements.

If their request were denied, they would be subjected to serious loss, which this embassy would be glad to spare them. I permit myself to commend this matter in a special way, finding encouragement to do so in the fact, admitted by the proper federal authorities themselves, that the Italian products generally are among those that infringe the law less frequently.

Expressing my thanks in advance for all that your excellency and the Department of Agriculture may possibly do to gratify the wish here presented,

I embrace, etc.,

G. C. MONTAGNA.

No. 370.]

The Acting Secretary of State to the Italian Chargé.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 15, 1906. SIR: In further reply to your note of the 24th ultimo, I have the honor to inclose a copy of a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture regretting that his department is unable to grant a longer period than that fixed by F. I. D. 39, May 1, for the importation, without the label "Artificially colored," of Italian colored pastes.

Accept, etc.,

ROBERT BACON.

No. 335.]

JAPAN.

COPYRIGHT CONVENTION.

The Secretary of State to Minister Buck.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 31, 1900.

SIR: Referring to previous correspondence on the subject of negotiating a copyright agreement between the United States and Japan, I inclose herewith for your information copies of letters from the American Copyright League and others, urging the early conclusion of such an agreement.

You will study the matter in the light of the reported copyright agreement between Japan and Germany, and see if the way may not be open for a conventional understanding between the United States and Japan which shall equally protect American copyright in the Empire.

No reason is seen why a reciprocal declaration, in the shape of a protocol, if preferred, conforming to the existing copyright law of the United States, and substantially on the lines of the understandings reached with other nations, should not meet the case, by giving to the declaration such form and scope as may harmonize with the Japanese law on the subject.

Your full report on the subject will be awaited with interest, in the hope that means may be found to terminate a condition as inequitable as it is injurious.

Two copies each of the department's circular of July 25, 1899, and of the President's proclamations of the conclusion of copyright conventions with Belgium, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, and the Netherlands are herewith inclosed for your information.

I am, sir, etc.,

JOHN HAY.

[Inclosure.-Circular.]

COPYRIGHTS.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, July 25, 1899.

SIR: On May 7, 1891, by a circular instruction, your predecessor was directed to communicate to the government to which he was accredited a copy of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to amend title 60, chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to copyrights," and to call attention to the fact that the benefits of the statute are extended to the citizens of foreign states only after a proclamation of the President, to be issued under the conditions specified in section 13.

a Not printed.

Printed in Foreign Relations for 1892, p. 265.

A similar notification was made to the other governments with which the United States maintained relations. As the result of correspondence and negotiations on the subject, the President has from time to time issued proclamations, extending the provisions of the act of March 3, 1891, to the citizens or subjects of those foreign states or nations which permit to citizens of the United States of America the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as their own citizens, in accordance with the ascertainment of the existence of this, the first, condition specified in the statute.

No proclamation has issued under the second condition expressed in the statute, to wit, that the foreign state or nation be a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United States of America may at its pleasure become a party to such agreement, and, indeed, the greater convenience and simplicity of the first condition seems to make its ascertainment preferable as the basis of an international understanding.

The proclamations so far issued, under the first condition are as follows: Belgium, July 1, 1891.

France, July 1, 1891.

Great Britain and the British possessions, July 1, 1891.

Switzerland, July 1, 1891.

German Empire, April 15, 1892.

Italy, October 31, 1892.

Denmark, May 8, 1893.

Portugal, July 20, 1893.
Spain, July 10, 1895.

Mexico, February 27, 1896.

Chile, May 25, 1896.

No similar agreement has been reached with the government to which you are accredited, although the matter was recalled to attention by the department's circulars of May 23, 1893, and February 21, 1896. It is possible that the subject may have been considered without a definite result, and that an understanding in this regard remains in abeyance. It may also be that the Government to which you are accredited had regarded the matter unfavorably, owing to some misapprehension of the intent of the United States statute and the scope and operation of the arrangement proposed. In some instances, as in the case of the Spanish negotiation, an agreement was only reached by removing the impression which existed that the statute contemplated a reciprocal identity of the provisions of copyright legislation in the two countries, and by showing that the first of the alternative conditions prescribed by the act of Congress merely required the ascertainment of the fact that citizens of the United States stand in the foreign state on substantially the same footing in regard to the privileges of copyright registration as the citizens or subjects of such state. This being determined to the President's satisfaction, his proclamation issues, giving to the citizen or subject of such foreign state the same privileges of copyright in the United States as are enjoyed by citizens of the United States.

The arrangement provided by the act of March 3, 1891, having been found to work satisfactorily with the several states above scheduled, it seems desirable to extend its beneficent operation to embrace, as far as may be possible, the remaining countries which have not yet come to an understanding with the United States in this regard.

You are therefore directed to bring anew the provisions of the act of March 3, 1891, to the attention of the Government to which you are accredited and invite a fresh consideration of the offer of the United States.

To enable you to explain the matter fully to his excellency the minister of foreign affairs, I inclose for your convenient use a copy of the act of March 3, 1891, and a copy of each of the subsequent acts of March 2, 1895, and January 6, 1897; the full text of title 60, chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes, as amended and supplemented by these three acts, thus showing the existing legislation of the United States in regard to copyrights; a report made to the President by the Third Assistant Secretary of State June 27, 1891, showing the intendment and scope of the offered arrangement, and the text of the President's proclamation of July 1, 1891, whereby the general form of promulgation will be seen.

a Not printed.

Printed in volume of Foreign Relations for 1892, p. 261 et seq.

In executing this instrument you will express the hope that the Government to which you are accredited will give the proposal that early and, if possible, favorable consideration which is due to the friendly spirit which prompts it, and to the benefits which may naturally be expected to spring from the mutual enjoyment of the privileges of copyright by the citizens and subjects of either country in the territory of the other.

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SIR: Instruction No. 335, dated December 31, 1900, with copies of correspondence from publishers, of the President's proclamations, and of the department's circular of July 25, 1899, on the subject of copyright, reached here on the 7th instant.

I immediately investigated the subject, with a view to securing this Government's consent to making a conventional copyright agreement with the United States according to reciprocal national treatment.

Article XXVIII of the copyright law of Japan, quoted in Mr. Buck's No. 336, of July 20, 1899, contains the only obstacle to an immediate arrangement by the method of the President's issuing a proclamation extending the protection of our copyright law to the citizens or subjects of any country the laws of which afford to Americans substantially national treatment in copyright. But Article XXVIII makes the enjoyment of national treatment by foreigners whose copyright privileges are not specially determined by treaty conditional upon first publication of their work in Japan, their treatment thus differing from national treatment.

By article 3 of the protocol of 1894 with Great Britain and by section 4 of the protocol of April 4, 1896, with Germany, the Japanese Government agreed to join the Berne convention covering copyright before consular jurisdiction should cease.

Then, too, Article XI of the Japan-Switzerland treaty secures, irrespective of the Berne convention, reciprocal national treatment in copyright. So that favored nation includes national treatment. Indicated above is the only mention of copyright which occurs in Japan's treaties and conventions now in force.

On the 15th instant, in presenting the matter to the minister for foreign affairs, I remarked that the United States Government had taken a leading part in facilitating and hastening treaty revision, and that their consequent willingness to sign their treaty so early showed clearly their confident expectation that they would receive at least as favorable treatment as any other nation; that the spirit of Article XIV, and, indeed, of the whole treaty, justified such an expectation.

I mentioned that we had reciprocal agreements with most countries, and intimated that, since Japan had, by the Berne convention as well as by the Swiss treaty, afforded copyright protection to the citizens or subjects of practically all the treaty powers, it was im

a Not printed.

possible to anticipate a refusal to afford to citizens of the United States, whose Government offered a corresponding return, equally favorable treatment.

Mr. Kato desired to look at the laws and treaties, after which he would be prepared within a few days for further discussion of the subject. He said that he would do all in his power to meet the views of the Government of the United States.

For the foregoing reasons I regard the present as an especially opportune time for attempting to secure the desired convention—an opinion I ventured to indicate in the telegram confirmed above.

I have, etc.,

HUNTINGTON WILSON.

No. 545.]

Chargé Wilson to the Secretary of State.

[Extracts.]

AMERICAN LEGATION, Tokyo, Japan, March 12, 1901. SIR: Referring to my dispatch, No. 541, of February 20, during the interval until the minister for foreign affairs should be prepared fully to discuss the subject, I continued, by means of three interviews with the vice-minister, to advocate a copyright arrangement.

On the 7th instant, the minister for foreign affairs at length stating his preparedness to enter more fully into the discussion of copyright, I had with him a long conversation.

Finding evidence of a disposition to continue, as formerly, on behalf of the department of education, under which copyright matters are said to be, to deny to Americans the protection of copyright to which justice entitles them, I deemed it necessary more strongly to present the matter.

Herewith I have the honor to inclose a copy of my note No. 267, dated March 11, formally requesting, on behalf of the United States Government, that the Japanese Government agree to make a convention securing to both nations national or most-favored-nation treatment in copyright.

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The undersigned, chargé d'affaires of the United States, had the honor last month to state to his excellency His Imperial Japanese Majesty's minister for foreign affairs the proposition of the United States Government that a copyright convention be concluded between the United States and Japan. Since then he has had three conversations with Mr. Uchida, the vice-minister. On the 7th instant he had the honor more fully to discuss the subject with his excellency the minister. Referring to those conversations, from which the undersigned entertains the expectation that the wishes of his Government will be met in this matter, and deeming it now advisable to set down in writing the

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