CO885-(23-24) — Page 75

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

the Executive during their stay in the places of transit, and to continue their journey within the shortest time possible and which shall be communicated to them.

Art. 14. Every six months the said foreigners shall personally present to the Governor of their Province the new registration certificates issued to them. The Governor shall note upon the certificate the fact of such presentation if the interested party furnishes a stamp of the third class, which shall be affixed to the said document aud cancelled in the manner prescribed in Article 9 of this Law. The person not complying with this requirement shall be punished with a fine of ten balboas.

Art. 15. The foreigners mentioned in this law who smoke opium or traffic clandestinely in this article; or who have suffered a corporal punishment for the infraction of the laws and decrees prohibiting games of chance and hazard; or for a common crime, or those who may be condemned on three different occasions to pay the fine mentioned in the preceding Article for the omission or delay in the required presentation of the registration certificates, shall be expelled from the territory of the Republic and shall be subject to the provisions of Article 11 hereof if they do not obey the order of expulsion,

Art. 16. The prohibition of the foreigners mentioned include all individuals of the same races, even those that may have been naturalised in countries foreign to those of their origin.

Art. 17. The provisions of this law do not apply to diplomatic and consular agents of the races whose immigration is prohibited.

Art, 18. The Governors of the Provinces are competent to apply the penalties established by this law for its infraction by means of a written procedure such as established for police trials. The decisions of the Governors may be appealed against tʊ the President of the Republic.

Art. 19. The individuals found responsible for the introduction overland of the persons mentioned in this law shall incur the same tines as the masters of ships and shall have the same obligation to remove these immigrants from the country.

Art. 20. The foreigners mentioned in this law shall have the right of association accorded by Article 20 of the Constitution in accordance with the provisions contained in the following articles :

Art. 21. The founders or promoters of an association of such foreigners shall present to the Secretary of Government and Justice, at least ten days before its organisation, two copies, written in the native language, and signed by them all, of the by-laws and regulations by which it shall be governed, stating clearly in them its denomination and purposes, its domicile, the form of its administration, the funds available or with which it may intend meeting its expenses, and the manner in which these funds or corporate assets are to be applied in case of dissolution.

Art. 22. If the documents presented fill the requirements of the preceding Article and it appears therefrom that the association should be considered a lawful one, the President of the Republic will decide that it may be constituted and operated if it complies with the obligations and furnishes the securities which the present law requires for this purpose.

Art. 23. If the documents presented do not fill the requirements mentioned the Secretary of Government and Justice shall return them to the interested parties within a period of ten days, with a statement as to the defects found in them and a warning that the association cannot be constituted until such defects are remedied.

Art. 24. An association shall be held unlawful when it has for its object the commission of crimes or the transgression of the laws, regulations, and decrees, and disobedience of the orders of the authorities, and whenever its objects or circumstances are contrary to public morals or to good customs.

Art. 25. The associations of the said foreigners, although constituted on the authorisation of the President of the Republic, shall not be recognised as judicial persons nor authorised legally to operate or accomplish their purposes until they have complied with the following conditions :-

(1) To register with the Alcalde of the District all the persons who have formed the society or entered into the same.

(2) To pay in advance one quarterly payment of the tax which these associations

shall pay, and which shall be thus: one thousand balboas (B/1,000.00) per month for those operating in the city of Pansina; six hundred balbons (B/600.00) per month for those operating in the city of Colon; three hundred balbous (B/300.00) per month for those operating in the city of Bocas del Toro; and one hundred balboas (B/100.00) per month for those established elsewhere in the Republic.

Religious and benevolent societies holding not over four meetings a month shall be exempt from the payment of the above tax.

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(3) To furnish a personal security, satisfactory to the President of the Republic, that shall guarantee the payment of the sums which these associations may be obliged to pay as fines for violations of this law and the executive decrees which regulate it.

(4) To arrange the place of its meetings in the manner prescribed by the laws, regulations and decrees relative to public health, and in accordance with the orders given to them jointly by the Chief of Police, the Police Physician, and the Chief of the Fire Department of the respective towns,

Art. 26. A special register shall be kept in the Department of Government and Justice, where a record is to be kept of the associations whose existence and operation has been authorised. The Secretary of Government and Justice shall issue, by reference to this register, the certificates requested by the directors, presidents, or representatives of the associations to prove their legal existence or judicial personality.

Art. 27. Every such association shall keep a register with the name, surname, profession and domicile of each of its members, with the name of the street and number of the house and room which they inhabit, if they have any, and the number and date and place of their registration certificates. In this register the names of those having the management, government or representation of the association shall be recorded. The nomination or election of these shall be notified to the Secretary of Government and Justice within the five days following it, and an exact copy, written in the native language, of the register mentioned shall be sent to him.

Art. 28. Every such association shall keep one or more books of accounts in the national language, and in which there shall appear, under the responsibility of those who exercise administrative or directive duties, a record of the revenues and expenses of the association, the origin of the former and the use of the latter being clearly expressed. Every three months a general balance shall be made and sent to the Secretary of Govern- ment and Justice.

Art. 29. The Government and l'olice authorities shall be able to enter at any time into the place where an association has its domicile or holds its meetings, and shall order any meeting or re-union to be suspended forthwith in which any crime or misdemeanour is committed or being agreed upon. Should the punishable act warrant arrest for the establishment of facts, those present at the meeting shall be arrested at once, and the Secretary of Government and Justice shall be immediately advised.

Art. 30. The President of the Republic may decree the suspension of the operation of any association, setting forth clearly his reasons, when from its by-laws or the acts of its members as such sufficient grounds shall appear for considering it illegal or facts develop which constitute crimes or serious misdemeanours. Information shall be given of this action and of the facts which have necessitated the suspension of the association or of its meetings and of the names of the members or persons present who appear responsible for them, with the documents relating thereto, to the Supreme Court of Justice in order that within a period of fifteen days it may confirm or revoke the suspension with due hearing of the representative or agent of the association and the Attorney General, who may present proofs in the premises at the time of the hearing or at any time prior thereto.

The judicial authority issuing an order to proceed against the members of

Art. 31.

an association for cause warranting the dissolution of the society shall order at the same time the suspension of the same and shall notify the Secretary of Government and Justice of his action.

Art. 32. The Supreme Court of Justice is the only authority empowered to decree the dissolution of the associations organized in accordance with this law, and may do so at the request of the Executive or of any private or official person. Such dissolution shall be decreed in the decision in which an association is declared unlawful in accordance with the provisions of this law, or in decisions rendered in respect of crimes committed in carrying out the resolutions of the said association.

It may also be decreed in decisions handed down against one or more of its members for crimes committed through means furnished them by the association, taking into consideration in each case the nature and circumstances of the crime, the character of the means employed, and the part taken by the association in the employment of the said means and in the acts executed,

Art. 33. Once the dissolution of an association has been ordered by formal sentence, another association may not be organized under the same name, nor for the same purpose, if this purpose should have been declared unlawful. If it should not have been so found, and another association with the same name and purpose should be formed, the individuals condemned by the said decision may not form part of it.