liable for such additional charges irrespective of any provisions to the contrary in the bill of lading or in the contract under which the shipment was made or handled. An action for the enforcement of such liability may be begun within two years from the time the cause of action accrues, or before the expiration of six months after final judgment against the carrier in an action against the consignee begun within said period. If the consignee has given to the carrier erroneous information as to who is the beneficial owner, such consignee shall himself be liable for such additional charges, notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this paragraph. An action for the enforcement of such liability may be begun within two years from the time the cause of action accrues, or before the expiration of six months after final judgment against the carrier in an action against the beneficial owner named by the consignee begun within said period. On shipments reconsigned or diverted by an agent who has furnished the carrier with a notice of agency and the proper name and address of the beneficial owner, and where such shipments are refused or abandoned at ultimate destination, the said beneficial owner shall be liable for all legally applicable charges in connection therewith.

"EMPLOYEES

"SEC. 319. The Commission is authorized to employ such experts, assistants, special agents, examiners, attorneys, and other employees as in its judgment may be necessary or advisable for the convenience of the public and for the efficient administration of this part. Such examiners shall have power to administer oaths, examine witnesses, and receive evidence.

"REPEALS

"SEC. 320. (a) The Shipping Act, 1916, as amended, and the Intercoastal Shipping Act, 1933, as amended, are hereby repealed insofar as they are inconsistent with any provision of this part and insofar as they provide for the regulation of, or the making of agreements relating to, transportation of persons or property by water in commerce which is within the jurisdiction of the Commission under the provisions of this part; and any other provisions of law are hereby repealed insofar as they are inconsistent with any provision of this part.

"(b) Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to repeal

"(1) section 205 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936, as amended, or any provision of law providing penalties for violations of such section 205;

"(2) the third sentence of section 2 of the Intercoastal Shipping Act, 1933, as amended, as extended by section 5 of such Act, or any provision of law providing penalties for violations of such section 2;

"(3) the provisions of the Shipping Act, 1916, as amended, insofar as such Act provides for the regulation of persons included within the term 'other person subject to this Act', as defined in such Act;

"(4) sections 27 and 28 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, as amended.

"(c) Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to affect the provisions of section 15 of the Shipping Act, 1916, so as to prevent any water carrier subject to the provisions of this part from entering into any agreement under the provisions of such section 15 with respect to transportation not subject to the provisions of this part in which such carrier may be engaged.

"(d) Nothing in this part shall be construed to affect any law of navigation, the admiralty jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, liabilities of vessels and their owners for loss or damage, or laws respecting seamen, or any other maritime law, regulation, or custom not in conflict with the provisions of this part.

"(e) Subsection (e) of section 3 of the Inland Waterways Corporation Act of June 7, 1924, as amended (U. S. C., title 49, sec. 153 (e)), is hereby repealed as of October 1, 1940: Provided, however, That (1) any certificate of public convenience and necessity granted to any carrier pursuant to the provisions of such subsection (e) shall continue in effect as though issued under the provisions of section 309 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended; and (2) through routes and joint rates, and rules, regulations, and practices relating thereto, put into effect pursuant to the provisions of such subsection (e) shall, after the repeal of such subsection (e), be held and considered to have been put into effect pursuant to the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended.

"TRANSFER OF EMPLOYEES, RECORDS, PROPERTY, AND APPROPRIATIONS

"SEC. 321. (a) Such officers and employees of the United States Maritime Commission as the President shall determine to have been employed in the administration of the provisions of law repealed by section 320, and whose retention by the United States Maritime Commission is not necessary, in the opinion of the President, for the performance of other duties, are transferred to the Interstate Commerce Commission upon such date or dates as the President shall specify by Executive order. Such transfer of such personnel shall be without reduction in classification or compensation, except that this requirement shall not operate after the end of the fiscal year during which such transfer is made to prevent the adjustment of classification or compensation to conform to the duties to which such transferred personnel may be assigned.

"(b) All files, reports, records, tariff schedules, property (including office furniture and equipment), contracts, agreements, documents, or papers kept or used by, made to, or filed with the United States Maritime Commission under or in the administration of any provision of law repealed by this part, are hereby transferred to the jurisdiction and control of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and may be used for such purposes as the Interstate Commerce Commission may deem necessary in the administration of this part; except that in the case of files, reports, records, tariff schedules, contracts, agreements, documents, or papers, the retention of which is necessary for purposes of the administration by the United States Maritime Commission of matters within its jurisdiction, the furnishing to the Interstate Commerce Commission of copies thereof shall constitute sufficient compliance with the provisions of this subsection.

"(c) All appropriations and unexpended balances of appropriations available for expenditure by the United States Maritime Commission in the administration of any provision of law repealed by this part shall be available for expenditure by the Interstate Commerce Commission for any objects of expenditure authorized by this part, in the discretion of the Interstate Commerce Commission, without regard to the requirement of apportionment under the AntiDeficiency Act of February 27, 1906.

"EXISTING ORDERS, RULES, TARIFFS, AND SO FORTH; PENDING MATTERS

"SEC. 322. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 320, or any other provision of this part, all orders, rules, regulations, permits, tariffs (including rates, fares, charges, classifications, rules, and regulations relating thereto), contracts, or agreements, to the extent that they were issued, authorized, approved, entered into, or filed under any provision of law repealed by this part, and are still in effect, shall continue in force and effect according to the terms thereof as though this part had not been enacted, except that the Commission may modify, set aside, or rescind any such order, rule, regulation, permit, tariff, contract, or agreement to the extent that it finds the same to be in violation of any provision of this part or inconsistent with the national transportation policy declared in this Act.

"(b) Any proceeding, hearing, or investigation commenced or pending before the United States Maritime Commission at the time this section takes effect, to the extent that it relates to the administration of any provision of law repealed by this part, shall be continued or otherwise acted upon by the Commission as though such proceeding, hearing, or investigation had been instituted under the provisions of this part.

"(c) Any pending judicial proceeding arising under any provision of law repealed by the provisions of this part shall be continued, heard, and determined in the same manner and with the same effect as if this part had not been enacted; except that in the case of any such proceeding to which the United States Maritime Commission is a party, the court, upon motion or supplemental petition, may direct that the Commission be substituted for the United States Maritime Commission as a party to the proceeding or made an additional party thereto.

"SEPARABILITY OF PROVISIONS

"SEC. 323. If any provision of this part or the application thereof to any person, or commerce, or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the part and the application of such provision to other persons, or commerce, or circumstances shall not be affected thereby."

TIME EFFECTIVE

SEC. 202. Part III of the Interstate Commerce Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, except that sections 304 (c), 805 to 308, inclusive, 309 (a) and (f), 313 to 318, inclusive, 320, 321, and 322 shall take effect on the 1st day of January 1941: Provided, however, That the Interstate Commerce Commission shall, if found

by it necessary or desirable in the public interest, by general or special order postpone the taking effect of any of the provisions above enumerated to such time, but not beyond the 1st day of April 1942, as the Commission shall prescribe.

Approved, September 18, 1940.

[CHAPTER 777-3D SESSION]

[H. R. 7357]

AN ACT

To amend section 4472 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 46, sec. 465) to provide for the safe carriage of explosives or other dangerous or semidangerous articles or substances on board vessels; to make more effective the provisions of the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea, 1929, relating to the carriage of dangerous goods; and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4472 of title 52 of the Revised Statutes, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 46, sec. 465), is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4472. (1) The word 'vessel' as used in this section shall include every vessel, domestic or foreign, regardless of character, tonnage, size, service, and whether self-propelled or not, on the navigable waters of the United States, including its Territories and possessions, but not including the Panama Canal Zone and the Philippine Islands, whether arriving or departing, or under way, moored, anchored, aground, or while in drydock; it shall not include any public vessel which is not engaged in commercial service, nor any vessel subject to the provisions of section 4417a of the Revised Statutes, as amended, which is constructed or converted for the principal purpose of carrying inflammable or combustible liquid cargo in bulk in its own tanks: Provided, That the provisions of subsection (3).of this section shall apply to every such vessel subject to the provisions of section 4417a of the Revised Statutes, as amended, which is constructed or converted for the principal purpose of carrying inflammable or combustible liquid cargo in bulk in its own tanks.

"(2) The phrase 'passenger-carrying vessel' as used in this section, when applied to a vessel subject to any provision of the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea, 1929, means a vessel which carries or is authorized to carry more than twelve passengers.

"(3) It shall be unlawful knowingly to transport, carry, convey, store, stow, or use on board any vessel fulminates or other detonating compounds in bulk in dry condition, or explosive compositions that ignite spontaneously or undergo marked decomposition when subjected for forty-eight consecutive hours to a temperature of one hundred and sixty-seven degrees Fahrenheit, or compositions containing an ammonium salt and a chlorate, or other like explosives.

"(4) It shall be unlawful knowingly to transport, carry, convey, store, stow, or use on board any passenger-carrying vessel any high explosives such as, and including, liquid nitroglycerin, dynamite, trinitrotoluene, picrates, detonating fuzes, fireworks that can be exploded en masse, or other explosives susceptible to detonation by a blasting cap or detonating fuze, except ships' signal and emergency equipment, and samples of such explosives (but not including liquid nitroglycerin) for laboratory or sales purposes in restricted quan