Department appropriation bill, 1929, it is estimated by an official of the Office of Indian Affairs that the annual use of current for the benefit of the Indians will be as follows:

Rice School and Agency.

Irrigation pumping..

Kilowatt-hours

217, 832 272, 480

This is believed to be a reasonable basis for estimating the additional compensation which would arise out of a supply of power at less than cost.

The current for the school and agency is considered to be of such a character that it could be sold for 6 mills per kilowatt-hour if it were not taken for benefit of the Indians, and, similarly, that the power for irrigation pumping could be sold for 3 mills. Thus the combined project may be regarded as contributing to the Indians at the rate of 3 mills per kilowatt-hour for power for the school and agency and 1 mil per kilowatt-hour for power for irrigation pumping. This compensation is equivalent to $926 per year. Since it is greater than the compensation to which, as computed above, the San Carlos Apache Indians would be entitled if the project as a whole is considered as a joint enterprise, it appears that no further compensation should be paid to them.

The above conclusion has been based upon certain assumptions which are scarcely likely to be correct but which in each instance are believed to have placed the claim of power value in the Indian lands in a far more favorable position than a closer analysis of the situation would be likely to justify. It is very doubtful, for example, whether power of the extremely variable character which will be available (which, in fact, will not be available at all for months at a time in years of drought) could yield an average annual income of the amount assumed. It is doubtful if the irrigation project as such will never incur an operating deficit. Furthermore, no consideration has been given to the investment of some $5,000,000 in the irrigation project itself over and above the cost of the dam and power plant, an investment which is entitled to share in any net earnings of the combined project equally with the investment in the dam and power house and with the value in the Indian lands. Finally, no consideration has been given as a part of the real cost of development to the contribution by the United States of interest charges during construction. These extreme assumptions have been made because the problem was thereby made simpler. If, as has proven to be the case, additional values could not be found in the Indian lands on the basis of such extreme assumptions, there would then be no necessity of going back over the problem in order to make a closer and more detailed analysis.

CONCLUSION

The studies that have been made in accordance with the legislation contained in the act (Public, No. 100, 70th Cong.), approved March 7, 1928, show that the appraisal value of the tribal lands of the San Carlos Apache Indians equals or exceeds the value of the lands for either irrigation or power-development use. The tribal lands have for combined irrigation and power development an additional value over and above their appraisal price. The value of the benefits to be received by the Indians as a result of the proposed power development

is greater than the return to which they would be entitled upon the basis of such additional value under the provisions of the Federal water power act. Consequently, it appears that no compensation in addition to that already provided should be paid to the San Carlos Apache Indians by reason of the generation of hydroelectric power at the Coolidge Dam.

O. C. MERRILL, Executive Secretary.

S D-70-1-vol 25- -33

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(DOCUMENT 1 No. 94

INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE OF AERIAL LEGAL EXPERTS

MESSAGE

FROM

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

TRANSMITTING

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE REGARDING THE WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE OF AERIAL LEGAL EXPERTS, RECOMMENDING THE AUTHORIZATION OF AN ANNUAL APPROPRIATION NOT IN EXCESS OF $250 TO MEET THE QUOTA OF THE UNITED STATES TOWARD THE EXPENSES OF THIS COMMITTEE

MAY 3 (calendar day, MAY 4), 1928.-Read, referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and ordered to be printed

THE WHITE HOUSE, May 4, 1928.

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State in regard to the work of the International Technical Committee of Aerial Legal Experts, in the deliberations of which the Government of the United States would be entitled to participate if it should pay a share of the annual expenses of the committee, and commend to the favorable consideration of the Congress the recommendation of the Secretary of State, as contained in the report, that legislation be enacted authorizing an annual appropriation of a sum not in excess of $250 to meet the quota of the United States toward the annual expenses of this committee, beginning with the calendar year 1928.

CALVIN COOLIDGE.

The PRESIDENT:

MAY 3, 1928.

An international conference on private aerial law called by the French Government met at Paris on October 27, 1925. The conference drew up a draft international convention containing an outline of principles governing settlements for losses sustained in the transportation of merchandise by commercial aircraft and adopted a motion providing for the creation of an International Technical Committee of Aerial Legal Experts to continue the work of the conference. This committee has been organized and has held two sessions, the first at Paris in May, 1926, and the second in that city in April, 1927. A third session will be held at Madrid beginning on May 24, 1928. The draft convention adopted at the conference which met on October 27, 1925, is now being considered by this committee, and its studies will result in the preparation of drafts of other conventions for consideration at future international conferences on private aerial law. The Secretary of State is in receipt of a note from the French ambassador in which he states that the deliberations of the committee will render it possible to make studied progress in the unification of private aerial law, and that the French Government desires to be informed whether the Government of the United States is willing to contribute toward the annual expenses of the committee. An estimate of expenses for the year 1928, amounting to 33,400 gold francs, as approved by the committee, is herewith inclosed. There is also inclosed a copy of a resolution adopted by the committee appointing four commissions to make a study of the questions to be considered by the committee, on which the following countries are represented: Germany, England, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Rumania, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Russia, Venezuela, China, Estonia, Latvia, Mexico, Monaco, and Portugal. Twenty countries have already paid their quota toward the expenses of the committee for the year 1928.

The embassy in Paris reports that the amount paid by each country toward the annual expenses of the committee is the same, and that it will be less than $250 for each calendar year.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the Department of Commerce, whose views on the subject were requested by the Secretary of State, have expressed the belief that the deliberations of the International Technical Committee of Aerial Legal Experts are of sufficient importance to this Government to warrant an annual contribution toward the expenses of the committee.

The Secretary of State is of the opinion that it would be helpful to agencies of this Government interested in the development of commercial aviation if they could be kept fully informed of the deliberations of the International Technical Committee of Aerial Legal Experts, and that this Government should participate in the meetings of the committee and its subcommittees to such extent as may be found to be practicable, in order that their findings may be available to this Government for consideration in connection with any future conferences on private aerial law in which the Government of the United States may desire to participate.