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3. When violence has been used against the examiners, or the ballots of the election have been mixed with others, or they have been lost or destroyed through violence;

4. When the voting has not continued throughout the hours assigned in this decree; 5. When a register has not been made of the names of the voters, or it is proved that it has been falsified or altered; and

6. When the examination of the votes has been interrupted to be continued afterward.

ART. 45. The registers are of no value:

1. When it is proved that there has been substantial alteration in the writing, after having been signed by the members of the body;

2. When there appear corrections, erasures, or interlineations in the names or surnames of the candidates or in the number of votes each one may have obtained;

3. When they are found to be without the signatures of all the members of the municipal council or of the judges present at the examination, with exception of the case when it is known that a person or persons have refused to sign, and the cause of the refusal;

4. When the number of voters multiplied by the number of individuals to be voted for gives a result greater than appears in the register, counting the votes that have been declared null or blank; and

5. When it results that the register is falsified or doubtful.

ART. 46. The nullities stated under the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of article 44 include also those registers made by the municipal councils or judges of election.

CHAPTER VI.-Penalties.

ART. 47. The members of the electoral bodies described in this decree who, without the gravest cause, fail to attend the installation, shall pay a fine of from twentyfive to fifty dollars; and if for this reason the installation be not accomplished, the fine shall be doubled. This fine will be imposed by the members assembled.

If any individual fail to attend any other session whatever, without justifiable cause for the absence, the fine shall be from twenty-five to one hundred dollars; but should this prevent the session from being held, the fine will be from one hundred to two hundred dollars.

The same applies to those who attend the session in any one of the said cases whatever and do not sign the record of proceedings.

ART. 48. He who commits any act with the purpose of examining the ballot of another against the latter's will, and of violating the right of suffrage, employing force or fraud, any artifice or deceit to that end, shall be punished with a fine of from one hundred to five hundred dollars and from thirty to sixty days of arrest.

ART. 49. The members of the electoral bodies described in this decree who, in the discharge of their duties, exercise, or try to exercise, influence upon the result of the voting or the examination, shall suffer a punishment of from two to six months of imprisonment.

ART. 50. The individual who hinders, or endeavors to hinder, another who votes, or who changes his ballot without his consent, or removes it, or attempts to remove it, or in any other manner restrains him in his right to vote for the candidates of his choice or of his desires, shall suffer the same punishment expressed in the foregoing article.

ART. 51. He who votes or atttempts to vote under a name not his own, or attempts to place in the urn two or more envelopes, shall suffer an imprisonment of from one to two years.

ART. 52. The individual who, being suspended or deprived of political rights by virtue of judicial sentence, attempts to vote or votes in the election for delegates, shall suffer a year of imprisonment, after which he suffers the first sentence.

ART. 53. He who knowingly hinders the meeting of the electoral bodies, in order that the voting or examinations may not take place with due punctuality, shall suffer an imprisonment of from one to two years.

ART. 54. He who takes away the urn or exercises violence against the officials charged with receiving the ballots or of making the examination, or seizes the ballots or the records of the examinations, shall be tried as guilty of using force and violence. ART. 55. The members of the electoral bodies who maliciously give place to what for any reason causes nullity or vitiates the voting or examination, shall suffer an imprisonment of from six months to one year. If the act were committed inadvertently or through ignorance the penalty shall be a fine of from $100 to $200.

ART. 56. He who abstracts, changes, destroys, or delays any record of examination

shall suffer an arrest of from six to nine months. If he who committed the act be a member of some electoral body or public official, the punishment will be doubled. ART. 57. The prefects of provinces, the mayors of districts, the inspectors of police who do not give protection to citizens on the day of the elections, or who do not give their cooperation in order that the judges of election, municipal councils, and electoral boards lack nothing at the time of complying with their obligations, and the members of such bodies who do not fulfill the duties that correspond to them, so that the elections and the examinations may be carried out promptly, shall pay a fine of from $50 to $200, which will be imposed by the junta of the Provisional Government; but if on account of the above reasons the elections or examinations are not carried out the penalty will be doubled.

ART. 58. The members of the municipal councils or of the judges of election who, after having received votes freely deposited, compute or count them in favor of persons other than those named in the same, or who cause to appear a greater number of votes than the number of persons who have actually voted, or who in any manner commit fraud, alteration, or omissions, with the purpose of favoring certain candidates shall be considered as guilty of falsifying public documents and judged accordingly.

ART. 59. The penalties of which the foregoing articles treat shall be imposed upon those accountable by the judges competent according to the laws of criminal procedure, in case that power has not been attributed to another authority by the present decree. Those articles shall be published in loose sheets and will be fixed in the most conspicuous places in all public offices.

ART. 60. The member of the municipal council or of an electoral body who withdraws from the session without leaving a majority, or without having finished the examination, or without the registers being made and signed and the covers that contain them sealed and directed, shall pay a fine of from $25 to $400, which will be imposed by the highest political authority of the province if it concerns one of the council and judges of election, and by the junta of the Government if it concerns one of the electoral boards.

ART. 61. The bearers of the documents of the elections who do not arrive at their destination in the time which has been fixed for them, if it be not on account of physical impossibility, duly proved, shall suffer imprisonment of fifteen days.

ART. 62. If he who is sentenced to payment of a fine does not pay it promptly, he will be placed under arrest, at the rate of one day for each dollar of the fine; but even after the change has been ordered the individual sentenced can pay the fine or the respective proportional part and free himself from arrest.

ART. 63. The fines which are imposed in conformity with this decree shall be turned into the treasury of the Republic.

ART. 64. In the elections which are to take place the electoral bodies by a relative majority of the members shall decide every case of a tie by lot.

ART. 65. The electoral boards shall be installed the 30th day of December of the present year, and for the making of the examination which is their duty, the 3rd day of January, 1904, is designated.

Publish.

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CUBA.

LEASE OF COALING OR NAVAL STATIONS TO THE UNITED

STATES.

Agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba for the lease (subject to terms to be agreed upon by the two Governments) to the United States of lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations.

Signed by the President of Cuba, February 16, 1903.

Signed by the President of the United States, February 23, 1903.

Agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba for the lease (subject to terms to be agreed upon by the two Governments) to the United States of lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations.

The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, being desirous to execute fully the provisions of Article VII of the Act of Congress approved March second, 1901, and of Article VII of the Appendix to the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba promulgated on the 20th of May, 1902, which provide:

"Article VII. To enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the Cuban Government will sell or lease to the United States the lands necessary for coaling or naval stations, at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States."

have reached an agreement to that end, as follows:

ARTICLE I.

The Republic of Cuba hereby leases to the United States, for the time required for the purposes of coaling and naval stations, the following described areas of land and water situated in the Island of Cuba. 1st. In Guantanamo (see Hydrographic Office Chart 1857).

From a point on the south coast, 4.37 nautical miles to the eastward of Windward Point Light House, a line running north (true) a distance of 4.25 nautical miles:

From the northern extremity of this line, a line running west (true), a distance of 5.87 nautical miles;

From the western extremity of this last line, a line running southwest (true), 3.31 nautical miles;

From the southwestern extremity of this last line, a line running south (true), to the seacoast.

This lease shall be subject to all the conditions named in Article II of this agreement.

2nd. In Northwestern Cuba (see Hydrographic Office Chart 2036). In Bahia Honda (see Hydrographic Office Chart 520b).

All that land included in the peninsula containing Cerro del Morrillo and Punta del Carenero situated to the westward of a line running south (true) from the north coast at a distance of thirteen hundred yards east (true) from the crest of Cerro del Morrillo, and all the adjacent waters touching upon the coast line of the above described peninsula and including the estuary south of Punta del Carenero with the control of the headwaters as necessary for sanitary and other purposes.

And in addition all that piece of land and its adjacent waters on the western side of the entrance to Bahia Honda included between the shore line and a line running north and south (true) to low water marks through a point which is west (true) distant one nautical mile from Pta. del Cayman.

ARTICLE II.

The grant of the foregoing Article shall include the right to use and occupy the waters adjacent to said areas of land and water, and to improve and deepen the entrances thereto and the anchorages therein, and generally to do any and all things necessary to fit the premises for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose.

Vessels engaged in the Cuban trade shall have free passage through the waters included within this grant.

ARTICLE III.

While on the one hand the United States recognizes the continuance. of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba over the above described areas of land and water, on the other hand the Republic of Cuba consents that during the period of the occupation by the United States of said areas under the terms of this agreement the United States shall exercise complete jurisdiction and control over and within said areas with the right to acquire (under conditions to be hereafter agreed upon by the two Governments) for the public purposes of the United States any land or other property therein by purchase or by exercise of eminent domain with full compensation to the owners thereof.

Done in duplicate at Habana, and signed by the President of the Republic of Cuba this sixteenth day of February, 1903. [SEAL]

T. ESTRADA PALMA.

Signed by the President of the United States the twenty third of February, 1903. [SEAL]

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Lease to the United States by the Government of Cuba of certain areas of land and water for naval or coaling stations in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.

Signed at Habana, July 2, 1903.

Approved by the President October 2, 1903.

Ratified by the President of Cuba August 17, 1903.

Ratifications exchanged at Washington October 6, 1903.

The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, being desirous to conclude the conditions of the lease of areas of land and

water for the establishment of naval or coaling stations in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda the Republic of Cuba made to the United States by the Agreement of February 16 23, 1903, in fulfillment of the provisions of Article Seven of the Constitutional Appendix of the Republic of Cuba, have appointed their Plenipotentiaries to that end.

The President of the United States of America, Herbert G. Squiers, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Havana.

And the President of the Republic of Cuba, José M. Garcia Montes, Secretary of Finance, and acting Secretary of State and Justice, who, after communicating to each other their respective full powers, found to be in due form, have agreed upon the following Articles;—

ARTICLE I

The United States of America agrees and covenants to pay to the Republic of Cuba the annual sum of two thousand dollars, in gold coin of the United States, as long as the former shall occupy and use said areas of land by virtue of said Agreement.

All private lands and other real property within said area shall be acquired forthwith by the Republic of Cuba.

The United States of America agrees to furnish to the Republic of Cuba the sums necessary for the purchase of said private lands and properties and such sums shall be accepted by the Republic of Cuba as advance payment on account of rental due by virtue of said Agree

ment.

ARTICLE II

The said areas shall be surveyed and their boundaries distinctly marked by permanent fences or inclosures.

The expenses of construction and maintenance of such fences or inclosures shall be borne by the United States.

ARTICLE III

The United States of America agrees that no person, partnership, or corporation shall be permitted to establish or maintain a commercial, industrial or other enterprise within said areas.

ARTICLE IV

Fugitives from justice charged with crimes or misdemeanors amenable to Cuban law, taking refuge within said areas, shall be delivered up by the United States authorities on demand by duly authorized Cuban authorities.

On the other hand the Republic of Cuba agrees that fugitives from justice charged with crimes or misdemeanors amenable to United States law, committed within said areas, taking refuge in Cuban territory, shall on demand, be delivered up to duly authorized United States authorities.

ARTICLE V.

Materials of all kinds, merchandise, stores and munitions of war imported into said areas for exclusive use and consumption therein, shall not be subject to payment of customs duties nor any other fees

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