CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW In compliance with paragraph 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in section 4370 of the Revised Statutes of the United States proposed to be made by the bill (H. R. 8283) are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets and new matter is printed in italics): "[SEC. 4370. All steam tugboats not of the United States found employed in towing documented vessels of the United States plying from one port or place in the same to another, shall be liable to a penalty of 50 cents per ton on the measurement of every such vessel so towed by them, respectively, which sum may be recovered by way of libel or suit. This section shall not apply to any case where the towing, in whole or in part, is within or upon foreign waters. Any foreign railroad company or corporation, whose road enters the United States by means of a ferry or tug boat, may own such boat, and it shall be subject to no other or different restrictions or regulations in such employment than if owned by a citizen of the United States.] "SEC. 4370. (a) It shall be unlawful for any vessel not wholly owned by a person who is a citizen of the United States within the meaning of the laws respecting the documentation of vessels and not having in force a certificate of registry, a certificate of enrollment, or a license, issued pursuant to title XLVIII or title L of the Revised Statutes, or a certificate of award of number issued pursuant to the Act of June 7, 1918, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, Supp. IV, title 46, sec. 288), to tow any vessel other than a vessel of foreign registry, or a vessel in distress, from any port or place in the United States, its Territories or possessions, embraced within the coastwise laws of the United States, to any other port or place within the same, either directly or by way of a foreign port or place, or to do any part of such towing, or to tow any such vessel, from point to point within the harbors of such places. The owner and master of any vessel towing another vessel in violation of the provisions of this section shall each be liable to a fine of not less than $250 nor more than $1,000, which fines shall constitute liens upon the offending vessel, enforceable through the district court of the United States for any district in which such vessel may be found, and clearance shall not be granted to such vessel until the fines have been paid. The towing vessel shall also be further liable to a penalty of $50 per ton on the measurement of every vessel towed in violation of this section, which sum may be recovered by way of libel or suit. "(b) The term 'person' as used in subsection (a) of this section, shall be held to include persons, firms, partnerships, associations, organizations, and corporations, doing business or existing under or by the authority of the laws of the United States, or of any State, Territory, district, or other subdivision thereof. "(c) Any foreign railroad company or corporation, whose road enters the United States by means of a ferry, tugboat, or towboat, may own such vessel and operate the same in connection with the water transportation of the passenger, freight, express, baggage, and mail cars used by such road, together with the passengers, freight, express matter, baggage, and mails transported in such cars, without being subject to any other or different restrictions than those imposed by law on any vessel of the United States entering ports of the United States from ports in the same foreign country: Provided, That except as authorized by section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, Supp. IV, title 46, sec. 883), such ferry, tugboat, or towboat shall not, under penalty of forfeiture, be used in connection with the transportation of any merchandise shipped from any port or place in the United States, its Territories or possessions, embraced within the coastwise laws of the United States, to any other port or place within the same. “(d) No foreign vessel shall, under penalty of forfeiture, engage in salvaging operalions on the Atlantic or Pacific coast of the United States, in Alaska, in any portion of the Great Lakes or their connecting or tributary waters, including any portion of the Saint Lawrence River through which the international boundary line extends, or in territorial waters of the United States on the Gulf of Mexico, except when authorized by a treaty or in accordance with the provisions of the Act of June 19, 1878, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 46, sec. 725): Provided, however, That if on investigation, the Secretary of Commerce is satisfied that no suitable vessel wholly owned by a person who is a citizen of the United States and documented under the laws of the United States or numbered pursuant to the Act of June 7, 1918, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, Supp. IV, title 46, sec. 288), is available in any particular locality he may authorize the use of a foreign vessel or vessels in salvaging operations in that locality and no penalty shall be incurred for such authorized use. "(e) Nothing in this section shall be held or construed to prohibit or restrict any assistance to vessels or salvage operations authorized by article II of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain 'concerning reciprocal rights for United States and Canada in the conveyance of prisoners and wrecking and salvage' signed at Washington, May 18, 1908 (35 Stat. 2036), or by the treaty between the United States and Mexico 'to facilitate assistance to and salvage of vessels in territorial waters,' signed at Mexico City, June 13, 1935 (49 Stat. 3359).” о MAY 21 (legislative day, APRIL 24), 1940.-Ordered to be printed Mr. BAILEY, from the Committee on Commerce, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 9492] The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9492) making it a misdemeanor to stow away on vessels and providing punishment therefor, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment, with the recommendation that the bill do pass. Following is the report submitted by the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries: [H. Rept. No. 2021, 76th Cong., 3d sess.] The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9492) making it a misdemeanor to stow away on vessels engaged in interstate or foreign commerce and providing punishment therefor, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill, as amended, do pass. The amendments are as follows: Page 1, line 9, insert, after the word "within", the words "the jurisdiction of"; and insert, after the comma following the words "United States", in the same line, the words "including the Canal Zone,". Page 1, lines 9 and 10, strike out the words and comma "or other place subject to its laws,". The above amendments more clearly express the purpose of the bill, as it is intended to apply to a stowaway on any vessel within the jurisdiction of the United States, including the Canal Zone. Page 2, line 5, strike out, after the word "any" in said line, the words "other place in", and insert in lieu thereof the words "place within the jurisdiction of", Page 2, line 6, strike out the words and comma "or any place subject to its laws," and insert in lieu thereof the words "including the Canal Zone,". The object of these amendments is the same as expressed above. Page 2, line 12, strike out the sign and figures "$500" and insert in lieu thereof the sign and figures "$1,000". The object of this amendment is to increase the maximum fine that may be assessed against one who knowingly aids, abets, or assists any person to violate the act. Amend the title by striking out the words "engaged in interstate or foreign commerce". PURPOSE OF THE BILL The bill as reported is an evolution of a bill introduced for the purpose of dealing with stowaways on vessels, H. R. 3209, and subsequent committee reprints. The general purpose was the same in the first bill and all subsequent reprints. They were submitted to the District of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, the United States Maritime Commission, the Department of Labor, and the Department of State. The replies of the Director of the Bureau of Marine Inspection, the Chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of State, in the order named, appear in the reports which are set out below. It will be noted in the letter from the Chairman of the Maritime Commission that the Commission is advised by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget that there would be no objection to the submission of the report to your committee. The letter from Admiral Land, Chairman of the Maritime Commission, sets out in detail the preceding drafts, from which it will appear that H. R. 9492 involves no substantial departure from the preceding drafts but is more concise and better draftsmanship, The Chairman of the Maritime Commission states that such a measure will serve a salutary purpose in hepling to solve the problems which now confront shipowners with respect to stowaways, "and will fill a long-felt need for legislation making it an offense to stow away on vessels engaged in interstate or foreign com merce. Miss Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, says that providing a criminal penalty upon the stowaway himself would discourage aliens from stowing away for trips to the United States and thus would save ships from the expense of preventing the escape of stowaways in our ports and from incurring the severe fine for failure to prevent their escape. The Secretary of State reported that the subject of the bill is not one which affects the interest of the State Department. Hearings were held on the original bill, and it appeared that stowaways are a great menace and source of danger. It was shown that stowaways have gone on board vessels and broached the cargo, set the cargo on fire, and sometimes so many have been on board that the ship had to return to remove them. The general manager of the Matson Line Steamship Co. reported that recently (the hearing was April 4, 1939) a Matson Line ship which arrived in Los Angeles from Honolulu had nine stowaways on board, but that the company's hands were tied because there is no law prohibiting such a practice or providing a penalty. Reports were presented to show that on 36 trips, 146 attempts to stow away were made and 71 where stowaways did get on board. The log of the steamship Golden Cross, of the Matson Navigation Co., on voyage No. 3, showed that on May 31, 1938, the boatswain found two stowaways in the steering-engine room, named James Two Soo Lo and Henry Estrella, of Honolulu. These stowaways had broached cargo and had made small fires in the cargo hold that did considerable damage. Stowaways constitute a menace and danger to the safety and health of the passengers and crew, as well as an increased hazard and annoyance to the vesse'. A man may get on board, become sick or injured. He has not received medical inspection and may come on board with some dangerously infectious or contagious disease. He may bring into the country, or carry from one part of the country to another, diseases against which the Public Health Service is exhausting every possible effort and much money to protect the public. It is possible for epidemics to be thus imported and spread. Another witness who had served on vessels said: "Stowaways have been a nuisance to the crews of ships. Let us say, for example, I remember one time coming up from South America, after one of the Brazilian revolutions. We left Rio, and a gunboat came out as we left the harbor, a Brazilian gunboat, and stopped us. They had an idea there was somebody on board trying to escape from the country, a political refugee. They made a perfunctory examination of the ship and did not find anyone and went away. We kept on going toward North America, and things began to get missing all around the ship; whole chickens and hams were found gone out of the icebox, and things like that. And the night before we got into New York we found 11 stowaways on that ship." Again the same witness said that he knew one professional stowaway who was a "skylarker" known as Stowaway Mary. The witness said: "She had stowed away, I guess, on every passenger ship we ever had. I caught up with her once in Bermuda when she had even gone to the extent she has done it so often that she knew just what to do and she came aboard the ship well dressed." It appears that this stowaway was so adroit in the rush that she got by the steward and into the dining room, and in one instance won the friendship of a fellow passenger, shared her room on the representation that her own room was not satisfactory, and remained there without detection until thefts from her fellow passenger led to her discovery. The testimony showed that these stowaways come on board in various ways sometimes by coming on board wearing longshoremen's buttons and making it appear that they are longshoremen; sometimes by wearing a greasy hat, as they do in the engine room; sometimes they go in the stewards' department; sometimes they mix among the passengers on a passenger ship, so that you cannot know who they are until a check is made on those who have not paid. They use all kinds of means of getting on board the vessel. By circularizing its members, the American Merchant Marine Institute obtained information which showed that in 1938 there were 330 alien stowaways found on vessels arriving in the United States. How many alien stowaways may have entered without being discovered is not known. The experience of the member companies of this organization showed that the abuses are largely limited to vessels arriving in the United States from foreign ports. The vice president of the New York & Porto Rico Steamship Co. said that during 1938 their steamers sailing from Puerto Rico to New York had 57 stowaways, of whom 7 were transferred at sea to the south-bound ship, leaving 50 arriving at New York, of whom 1 was an alien. He said that their steamers sailing from New York carried 53 stowaways, of whom 1 was an alien. The vice president of the New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co. says that during 1938 they apprehended some 52 stowaways on their vessels, of whom 15 were citizens of the United States and 37 were aliens. The vice president of the Grace Line reported that in 1938 that line brought into New York alone 54 stowaways, mostly Latin Americans with fair proportion of Europeans, in addition to which they have carried hundreds of stowaways on the west coast and Caribbean, who, if discovered in time, are taken off at way ports and returned to their countries of origin. Stowaways are a menace, annoyance, and burden to the transportation companies; but more than that, they are a menace to the safety of ships, passengers, and crews, to the public on shore as well as on sea, to the health of the Nation, and are themselves in danger. The laws of the United States contain no statutes against them as such. Protection, so far as possible, should be provided by law. That is the purpose of this bill. Your committee recommend that the bill do pass. Hon. S. O. BLAND, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, BUREAU OF MARINE INSPECTION AND NAVIGATION, Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: I have your letter of May 20, 1939, containing the committee print of H. R. 3209 relative to stowaways on vessels. I observe that the original proposed bill has been redrafted and with particularity provides for the punishment of stowaways who may undertake to stow away from ports of the United States, or may arrive within the jurisdiction of the United States having stowed away on vessels without the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. You request comment on my part on the committee draft. In reply would say that it appears to me that the committee print takes care of the situation in a very thorough manner. Cordially yours, R. S. FIELD, Director. UNITED STATES MARITIME COMMISSION, Hon. S. O. BLAND, Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Under date of May 20, 1939, you requested the views and recommendations of the Commission with respect to a proposed redraft |