(20475.) Correction of addresses of persons receiving Weekly Treasury Decisions. [Circular No. 3.] TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 3, 1899. In consideration of the great number of names on the mailing list of this office for Weekly TREASURY DECISIONS, it is deemed proper at this time, when a year's supply of envelopes bearing names and addresses is about to be prepared, that all persons in receipt of said decisions, and desirous of a continuance of the same, notify this office at once of any change required in name or address. It will be necessary for all persons receiving the DECISIONS to reply to this notice, whether changes are desired or not, and at the expiration of thirty days after date hereof the names of all persons not replying will positively be stricken from the mailing list. Respectfully, yours, W. B. HOWELL, Assistant Secretary. (20476.) National exposition of American products and manufactures at the city of Philadelphia, for the encouragement of the export trade, 1899. [Circular No. 4.] TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 3, 1899. To officers of the customs and others concerned: The attention of officers of the customs is invited to the appended act, entitled "An act providing for a National Exposition of American products and manufactures at the City of Philadelphia, for the encouragement of the export trade," approved December 21, 1898, section 2 of which provides for the entry, free of duty, customs fees, or charges, of "all articles which shall be imported from foreign countries for the sole purpose of exhibition at said exposition." So far as practicable, the regulations of the Department governing the free entry, etc., of articles for the Omaha Transmississippi and International Exposition (Synopsis 17686) are made applicable thereto, the conditions of free entry, sale, withdrawal for consumption, payment of duties, and penalties being precisely the same in the two acts covering said expositions. W. B. HOWELL, Assistant Secretary. AN ACT providing for a national exposition of American products and manufactures at the city of Philadelphia, for the encouragement of the export trade. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be held a national exposition of American products and manufactures, suitable for export, at the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Exposition Association; and that there may be admitted to said exposition such articles not of American manufacture and such other objects as may conduce to the interest of the exposition and may be useful for comparison with American products and manufactures: Provided, That the United States shall not be liable for any of the expenses attending or incident to such an exposition, nor by reason of the same, further than hereinafter provided for. SEC. 2. That all articles which shall be imported from foreign countries for the sole purpose of exhibition at said exposition, upon which there shall be a tariff or customs duty, shall be admitted free of payment of duty, customs fees, or charges, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe; but it shall be lawful at any time during the exhibition to sell, for delivery at the close thereof, any goods or property imported for and actually on exhibition in the exhi bition building, or on the grounds, subject to such regulation for the security of the revenue and for the collection of import duties as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe: Provided, That all such articles when sold or withdrawn for consumption in the United States shall be subject to the duty, if any, imposed upon such articles by the revenue laws in force at the date of importation; and all penalties prescribed by the law shall be applied and enforced against the persons who may be guilty of any illegal sale or withdrawal. SEC. 3. That for the purpose of enabling the collection in foreign markets of samples of merchandise of the character in favor and demand therein, of illustrating the manner in which merchandise for such markets should be prepared and packed, together with necessary business data concerning said samples to be displayed at the said exposition for the instruction and benefit of American manufacturers and merchants, and thereby laying the foundation of a great system of national commercial education, there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the board of trustees of the Philadelphia Museums the sum of fifty thousand dollars: Provided, That this sum shall be expended only for the purposes set forth in this section, and the samples of merchandise so collected shall become the property of said Philadelphia Museums. The Department of State is hereby directed to cooperate in this work, through the consular service of the United States, in such a manner as may be agreed upon by conference between the Secretary of State and the trustees and officers of the exposition association. SEC. 4. That to aid in providing buildings necessary for the purposes of the exposition (said buildings to be erected on lands set aside by the city of Philadelphia for the board of trustees of the Philadelphia Museums, and after the close of the exposition to be available for one or more of the various purposes of the Philadelphia Museums corporation, as set forth in its charter), and for the purpose of collecting, installing, and caring for such an exhibit by the United States Government as may be found expedient and desirable, there is hereby appropriated, out of any money not otherwise appropriated, to the said Philadelphia Exposition Association the sum of three hundred thousand dollars: Provided, That no liability against the Government shall be incurred, and no payments of money under this section shall be made, until the officers of said exposition shall have furnished the Secretary of the Treasury proofs to his satisfaction that there have been obtained by said board of trustees of the Philadelphia Museums and said Philadelphia Exposition Association, in good faith, subscriptions, contribu tions, donations, or appropriations, from all sources, for the purpose of said exposition and the buildings to be used therefor, a sum aggregating not less than an amount equal to the sum appropriated in this section. SEC. 5. That the United States shall not in any manner, nor under any circumstances, be liable for any of the acts, doings, proceedings, or representations of said board of trustees of the Philadelphia Museums or the Philadelphia Exposition Association, its officers, agents, servants, or employees, or any of them, or for service, salaries, labor, or wages of said officers, agents, servants, or employees, or any of them, or for any subscriptions to the capital stock, or for any certificates of stock, bonds, mortgages, or obligations of any kind issued by said corporation, or for any debts, liabilities, or expenses of any kind whatever attending such corporation or accruing by reason of the same, other than are in this Act provided. SEC. 6. That nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to create any liability of the United States, direct or indirect, for any debts or obligations incurred, nor for any claim for aid or pecuniary assistance from Congress or the Treasury of the United States in support or liquidation of any debts or obligations created by said board of trustees of the Philadelphia Museums or the Philadelphia Exposition Association in excess of the sums herein appropriated. Approved, December 21, 1898. (20477.) Animals for breeding purposes. Polo ponies not entitled to free entry as animals imported for breeding purposes.-Polo Pony Stud Book removed from list of recognized books in Synopsis 19920. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 3, 1899. SIR Referring to Department's circular of August 19, 1898 (Synopsis 19920), in regard to the free importation of animals for breeding purposes under the provisions of paragraph 473 of the act of July 24, 1897, I have to state that in conformity with the advice of the Secretary of Agriculture the Polo Pony Stud Book is hereby removed from the list of foreign books mentioned in said circular, and certificates of pedigree issued from said book will hereafter not be recognized as authority for the free entry of polo ponies for the purposes mentioned, it appearing that such animals are not pure bred, and that the conditions of entry in the stud book do not entitle it to recognition as a book of record. Respectfully, yours, COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS, New York, N. Y. W. B. HOWELL, Assistant Secretary. (20478.) Admission of Chinese. Decisions of collectors of customs on applications of Chinese for admission to the United States are final unless reversed by Secretary of the Treasury on appeal. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 4, 1899. SIR: Acknowledging the receipt of your communication of the 27th ultimo, in relation to the finality of the decision of collectors of customs in regard to applications of Chinese for admission to this country, I inclose for your information copy of a decision rendered by Judge William B. Gilbert, of the United States circuit court for the district of Oregon, after a hearing on the 3d ultimo, of the case of a Chinese person named Leong Youk Tong, who applied for admission to the United States as a merchant engaged in business at Portland, Oreg., and whose application was rejected by the collector of customs for said port. In the case referred to, the applicant produced two white witnesses to prove that he was a merchant, but upon evidence that the premises named by the applicant as his place of business as a merchant were used for gambling and other disreputable purposes, the collector denied the right of the applicant to land, and on application for a writ of habeas corpus, Judge Gilbert held that the action of the collector having been approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the subject was appealed, it was final, and the petitioner was remanded to the custody of the collector. Respectfully, yours, W. B. HOWELL, Assistant Secretary. UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, New York, N. Y. [In the circuit court of the United States for the district of Oregon.-In the matter of the application of Leong Youk Tong for habeas corpus.] A writ of habeas corpus was issued on behalf of Leong Youk Tong upon a petition which alleged that he was unlawfully deprived of his liberty under authority of an order by T. J. Black, collector of customs for the port of Portland. It was alleged in the petition "That the petitioner was and had been a merchant at Portland, Oreg., since the year 1891; that in the year 1897 he went to China upon a business trip, and that upon his return to the port of Portland in July, 1898, he applied for readmission, and produced before the collector two white witnesses to prove the fact that he was such merchant; that said witnesses were examined and so testified; that the petitioner offered other reputable white witnesses to prove the same fact; that the collector refused to examine the other witnesses upon the ground, as then stated by him, that there was already sufficient proof that the petitioner was a merchant; that one B. F. Jossey, a Chinese inspector of the Treasury Department, objected before the collector to the right of the petitioner to land, and caused the hearing to be continued to the following day; that upon the following day the petitioner, by his counsel, appeared before the collector and the said inspector; that no further testimony was taken, but that thereupon the said inspector stated that the petitioner was denied the right to land, which statement the collector agreed to, but neither he nor the inspector made known the ground of said decision." The evidence upon the hearing on the writ fully sustains these allegations so far as they go. It appears that two days before the application came on for hearing the said Jossey had presented to the collector his report upon the case, in which he reported adversely to the petitioner's right to land. On the day of the hearing the collector heard the evidence of two reputable white witnesses to the effect that the petitioner, to their knowledge, had been and was a merchant in the city of Portland, carrying on business in his own name and doing no manual labor other than such as necessary in conducting his business. On the following day the collector and the inspector, Jossey, who seems to have usurped and exercised the functions of the collector, rejected the testimony of three reputable white witnesses, who were offered to corroborate the evidence of the first two witnesses, and announced to the petitioner's counsel that they were convinced that the petitioner was a merchant, but that he would be denied the right of admission into the United States upon other grounds. Up to this time no testimony whatever had been taken before the collector except that of two witnesses above referred to. On the same day the Chinese inspector and the collector informed the petitioner's counsel that the reason why the petitioner was rejected was that his store had been used for gambling and as a house of ill fame. After the decision had been announced, and the petitioner's counsel had left, the collector proceeded to take the depositions of two witnesses, adverse to the petitioner, who deposed to the effect that the petitioner's stock in trade had been very small, and was only for a blind, and that he had been engaged in keeping a gambling house and a house of prostitution. The petitioner appealed to the Secretary of the Treasury from the decision, and procured and forwarded to the Secretary the affidavits of the three witnesses whose testimony had been rejected by the collector, and acquainted the Secretary with the above-detailed facts which occurred at the hearing. The decision of the collector was affirmed on the appeal. By the law of August 18, 1894, it is provided as follows: "In every case where an alien is excluded from admission into the United States under any law or treaty now existing or hereafter made, the decision of the appropriate immigration or customs officers, if adverse to the admission of such alien, shall be final, unless reversed on appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury." If there has been a decision in this case such as the statute contemplates, the decision is final and can be reversed only on appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury. This court has no authority, by writ of habeas corpus or otherwise, to review it. (Lem Moon Sing v. United States, 158 U. S., 538.) The courts have interfered only in cases where the applicant for admission was about to be deported under an order which denied him a hearing or denied his right of appeal. (In re Gottfried, 89 Fed., 9; in re Gin Fung, 89 Fed., 153; in re Monaco, 86 Fed., 117, and in cases where he has been denied the right to land for reasons |