pect to be idle with it in my hands. Other members of the Conference have told me that they most decidedly wished to have what we understood we were going to have, not only two days but two clear days. When the learned delegate from the United States got up and proposed that we were to have two days I understood-perhaps I was wrongthat we were going to have two clear days, and not two days, taken up by committee work and Conference work. I thought we were going to have two clear days to consider this report, and I think that would have been enough. Perhaps I am more stupid than anybody here--I do not deny that-but I can not master this report in less time than that. I confess I am unable to do it and I get up and announce my incompetency to accomplish it.

Mr. GOODRICH (United States). Mr. President, my object is to get the ideas of the delegates. I am perfectly willing to do anything which the delegates want. If the delegates think they want until Monday without a session of the Conference, I am agreed to it. If you want to work to-morrow I will work with you from 9 o'clock until 7, if you desire it.

Mr. VERNEY (Siam). Mr. President, then I venture to propose that this Conference shall adjourn until Monday.

Dr. SIEVEKING (Germany). Mr. President, I desire to support the proposition made by the delegate from Siam. I think that would be the best way to save time. I am quite sure that it is very important to consider the report of the Collocation Committee and the time is very short until Saturday night at 7 o'clock. I think it is but fair to give the members of the Conference an opportunity to look very carefully over the report of the committee so that nobody will be idle, and then the committee which has not yet finished its work will have time to go on with the work and prepare the committee report. I am sure that if we now adjourn until to-morrow morning only in order to consider the amendment of the delegate from Norway, that the report of the Committee on Lights will come before us for the first time and somebody will want time to consider it.

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, like my learned friend, the delegate from the United States, I only want to propose what is for the convenience of the majority of the delegates. Certainly all of us want to meet the views of the majority, and that is the only course which ought to be pursued in a conference of this nature. I shall therefore not oppose the proposition, but I will move to add a rider to it according to the suggestion of the gallant delegate from France and the gallant delegate from Russia, and that is that we meet at 10 o'clock on Monday and sit until 5 o'clock, and that we do so on each day during the week.

Mr. GOODRICH (United States). Mr. President, before the question is taken on that motion, may I ask the gallant chairman of the Committee on Lights whether that report will be ready to-morrow morning?

Admiral KAZNAKOFF (Russia). Mr. President, we hope to have it ready to-morrow morning. The Committee on Lights will sit after the Conference adjourns. The report is all drawn up, and I think it will be adopted in a few minutes and be printed this evening.

Mr. GOODRICH (United States). Mr. President, I call the attention of the delegates to the fact that this report will be ready for them at 11 o'clock to-morrow morning at the Secretary's desk. As I have stated before, Appendix B of the report of the Collocation Committee will be printed and the delegates can get it here. It will not be sent out to them, but it can be obtained at the desk of the Secretary. May I ask the delegates to send in as early as possible to the Secretary these amendments, which will be sent to the printer not at 7 o'clock on Saturday night, but just as rapidly as they can be sent, having due regard to sending a proper number at once. So that if the delegates have any amendments to make they will send them in to the Secretary early. They are not thereby precluded from sending other amendments which they may see fit to make.

The PRESIDENT. The question is upon the amendment of the delegate from Great Britain on the motion of the delegate from Siam that the Conference adjourn until Monday, to meet at 10 o'clock and sit until 5. Is the Conference ready for the question?

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, and on each day thereafter. I move as a substantive resolution that we adjourn until 10 o'clock Monday morning and sit until 5 o'clock on that and on each succeeding day.

Mr. VERNEY (Siam). Mr. President, can we not omit "each succeeding day?" Can we not see how many of us are alive at the end of the first day before we provide for the whole week?

The PRESIDENT. The delegate from Great Britain moves that the Conference adjourn to meet on Monday at 10 o'clock and sit until 5 o'clock on that day and each succeeding day thereafter. Is the Conference ready for the question?

The question was put to the Conference upon the motion of the delegate from Great Britain, and it was carried.

The PRESIDENT. The Conference has not yet adjourned. There was a motion that when it did adjourn it adjourn until Monday.

Lieutenant BEAUGENCY (Chili). Mr. President, I wish to ask whether we are to sit from 10 till 5 during the whole time or only to consider the report of the Committee on Collocation?

The PRESIDENT. That has already been voted upon and it is determined that the Conference sit from 10 o'clock till 5 o'clock on Monday and each day thereafter.

Mr. GOODRICH (United States). Mr. President, I move we adjourn.

The Conference thereupon adjourned till Monday, December 16, 1889, at 10 o'clock a. m.

WASHINGTON, Monday, December 16, 1889, 11 o'clock a. m.

The Conference was called to order at 11 o'clock a. m., Rear-Admiral Franklin in the Chair.

The PRESIDENT. The first business in order this morning will be the additional report of the Committee on Lights with reference to the amendment of the delegate from Norway in regard to the position of the side lights and the mast-head light The Secretary will please read the report.

The additional report of the Committee on Lights is as follows:

"WASHINGTON, D. C., December 12, 1889.

"To Rear-Admiral S. R. FRANKLIN, U. S. Navy,

"President of the International Marine Conference, etc.

"SIR: In accordance with the resolution passed by the Conference on the 9th inst., your committee have again considered the question whether it would be advisable to assign a certain position to the side lights, as has been done by extra amendment No. 41 to Article 3, which has led to the rule adopted by the Conference, viz:

"The said green and red side lights to be placed in steam-vessels not forward of the mast-head light, and in sailing vessels as near abreast the foremast as practicable.'

66 Doubts have been raised by the Collocation Committee on the advis ability of this rule, on the ground that it involves a radical change and leads to great expense by compelling a very material alteration of the present construction of many ships, consequences which are said to outweigh the slight advantage of the introduction of the rule in question. "Your committee after having most carefully considered the subject are unanimous in reporting that in their opinion the rule passed by the Conference ought to be maintained.

"In the report dated November 4, 1889, the reasons have been given why in principle it would be advisable to have the side lights of all steamvessels so placed, that a vertical plane through the line drawn from them to the mast-head light would form a certain known angle with the keel. It has at the same time been acknowledged to be practically impossible to give the side lights a certain fixed position in regard to the fore-mast light, but it has been thought practicable and, therefore, has been recommended to introduce a rule by which steamers are compelled to carry the side lights abaft the fore-mast light, the connecting line forming an angle of six points with the keel, or as nearly so as possible. "The considerations which have led to this recommendation appear to your committee to be sound, and whilst confirming what has been said in the former report, we beg to add the following remarks:

"The rule as adopted by the Conference does not, it is true, go quite so far in assigning to the side lights a certain fixed position with regard

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to the masthead light as the recommendation contained in our report of the 4th of November. Nevertheless, by preventing steam-vessels from carrying the side lights forward of the masthead light, it will serve to give more certainty to the respective position of the regulation lights, and thus in our opinion will mark a decided improvement of the means of ascertaining the course of an approaching steamer, which improvement will gradually be increased when experience shows the advantages of the system.

"On the other hand, the difficulties connected with the introduction of the rule appear to be not at all insurmountable. Many ships are even now constructed so as not to require any changes in consequence of the adoption of this rule. Others might easily comply with the rule by changing the position of the masthead light, by placing it more forward of the foremast. And even if the position of the side lights should have to be altered, this could, in most cases, be done without incurring too heavy expense.

"We, therefore, recommend to let the rule stand as it is; provided, however, that the rule be adopted universally. Having regard to the difficulties which some ship-owners may justly feel if they had to comply with the new rule at once, your committee think that sufficient time should be allowed for the effecting of the changes necessitated by the rule, so as to enable ship-owners to carry out these changes under the most convenient conditions. Vessels now in course of construction will, of course, be able to adopt the new principle at once.

"As regards sailing-vessels, the committee do not consider it necessary to adopt the above-mentioned rule.

"We have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servants,

"Vice-Admiral N. KAZNAKOFF,
"Chairman, Russia.

"E. RICHARD,

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, as the learned delegate for the United States who is chairman of the Collocation Committee is not able to be in his place this morning, perhaps I may state very briefly what our action has been in the matter and what the views are that we have taken in regard to this amendment. It may be remembered that originally a proposition was brought forward to assign a fixed position to the side lights abaft of the foremast. That was discussed at considerable length; but it was withdrawn by the gallant delegate for Germany, who said that at a future time he would bring forward a resolu tion in the words of the recommendation of the Committee on Lights. So the matter stood when the amendment of the delegate for Norway was brought forward. It was not stated to the Conference then that

this amendment-or rather it was stated that this amendment was the recommendation of the Committee on Lights; but there were matters which were not stated in connection with it, and one was that the effect of this amendment, if carried, would be that every existing vessel which has not got a light in the position mentioned in the amendment would have to be altered for that purpose; and it was also not mentioned that the Committee on Lights had not made any suggestion whatever with regard to sailing vessels, and this amendment included sailing vessels as well as steamers. It was at once seen that by this amendment, if it stood as it was framed by the mover of it, all steam-vessels would have to be altered which had their lights forward of the masthead light, and all sailing vessels would be obliged to put their lights abreast of the foremast.

I need not point out to this Conference that the words "if practicable" mean, in a legal sense, "if possible," and no sailing vessel could excuse herself for not putting her lights in that position, if it were possible to do So. So that every sailing vessel on the sea now would have to put her lights abreast of the foremast and carry them there. That formed such a far-reaching proposition, as it appeared to us, especially as it had not been called to the attention of the Couference at all-not one single word had been said by the mover of the amendment pointing out this proposition with regard to sailing vessels-and as the report of the Committee on Lights was silent on the point and made no suggestion about sailing vessels-it appeared to us that it was not thoroughly considered by the Conference. I will only deal now with the proposition as it stands. The matter was referred to the Commitee on Lights and they have made a further report. They say: "Your committee, after having most carefully considered the subject, are unanimous in reporting that in their opinion the rule passed by the Conference ought to be maintained." But that is clearly an oversight, because they say on the next page that as regards sailing vessels they do not consider it neces sary to adopt the above-mentioned rule. So that the report of the Committee on Lights is against that part of the amendment which applies to sailing vessels. I do not think we shall have any difficulty about that, because, ar far as I am concerned, I am at a loss to see what advantage could be gained with regard to sailing vessels which do not carry a masthead light, and therefore would not give you the slightest information with regard to the position of the side lights.

Now, with regard to the position of the lights on steam-vessels. We have been most anxious, my colleagues and myself, and I think our actions have proved it, to defer in every case where we can, to the report of the committees appointed by this Conference. We have recognized the fact that the committees which have dealt with the matters referred to them by the Conference have dealt with them most carefully and thoroughly; and in all cases where their recommendations have been made, if I may say so, upon actual experience, we have bowed to the