PERMANENT INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE CONGRESSES OF NAVIGATION

1. By an act approved June 28, 1902, Congress appropriated the sum of $3,000 per year for the support and maintenance of the Permanent International Commission of the Congresses of Navigation and for the payment of the actual expenses of the properly accredited national delegates of the United States to the meetings of the congresses and of the Commission. An increase in this appropriation to $5,000 per year was authorized by the River and Harbor Act approved June 30, 1948. Beginning with the fiscal year 1936, such expenses were paid by allotment from the general appropriation for the improvement and maintenance of river and harbor works. The object of the association is the promotion of inland and maritime navigation by means of organized congresses, and the publication of pertinent information. Its headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, but the congresses are held in various countries upon invitation.

2. The association is supported principally by member nations, but the privileges of membership are also extended to corporations, libraries, and individuals. Governments are represented by delegates, the number of delegates being based on the amounts received annually from such governments and their nationals for the expenses of the Commission. Corporate membership may or may not include the privilege of representation by delegate. Two classes of corporate membership are available. The class paying the higher annual subscription has the privilege of representation by delegate. Life individual membership may be secured upon the payment of a single fee, or ordinary individual membership upon the payment annually of a fixed fee.

3. The general affairs of the association are managed by a permanent Commission with the assistance of a permanent council. The Commission is composed of delegates from the supporting governments, and the council is chosen from the members of the permanent Commission, the representation in each case being according to the amount of the annual contribution.

4. During the fiscal year 1950 the United States was represented as follows: On the American Section of the Permanent Commission by Maj. Gen. Philip B. Fleming, United States Army, Retired, chairman; Brig. Gen. Gordon R. Young, Corps of Engineers, United States Army; Mr. J. Spencer Smith of the State of New Jersey; Col. Spencer Cosby, United States Army, Retired; Maj. Gen. Glen E. Edgerton, United States Army, Retired; Rear Admiral Wm. H. Smith, United States Navy, Retired; Col. C. L. Hall, United States Army, Retired; Maj. Gen. Lewis A. Pick, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army; Lt. Col. Craig Smyser, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army; and Col. Henry F. Hannis, Corps of En

gineers, U. S. Army. Colonel Hannis served as secretary of the American section; and

On the American section of the Permanent Council by General Fleming and Colonel Hall.

5. The seventeenth congress was opened in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 10 and continued until September 19, 1949, with inspection trips continuing until September 24. The United States was officially represented by the following: Maj. Gen. Philip B. Fleming, United States Army, Retired, Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation, chairman of the American section and principal delegate from the United States; Maj. Gen. Hugh J. Casey, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army; Brig. Gen. Gordon R. Young, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army; Col. James Gordon Steese, U. S. Army, retired; Col. John L. Person, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army; Dr. Serge Koushnareff, Department of Commerce; Mr. John L. Cates, Jr., Department of State; Mr. George R. Clemens, ECA, Paris; and Prof. Arthur T. Ippen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The following were also appointed as official delegates but did not attend: Rear Adm. W. M. Angas, director Atlantic Division, Bureau of Yards and Docks, U. S. Navy; Brig. Gen. Paul W. Thompson, U. S. Army, Retired; Col. Douglas H. Gillette, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army; and Mr. J. Spencer Smith, New Jersey Division of Navigation.

6. In the first section, on inland navigation, three questions and three communications were presented for consideration; and in the second section, on ocean navigation, two questions and four communications. Papers on each of the 12 selected subjects were prepared by American authors, as follows: Messrs. Frederick M. Rademacher, associate civil engineer, Adolphus J. McCorkle, associate civil engineer, and John B. Newsom, assistant civil engineer, in the U. S. Engineer Office at Mobile, Ala.; Messrs. C. I. Grimm, head engineer, and Ray E. MacKenzie, engineer, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, in the North Pacific Division; Brig. Gen. Gordon R. Young, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, engineer commissioner, District of Columbia; Maj. Gen. Philip B. Fleming, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, Retired, administrator of Federal Works, Washington, D. C., Mr. J. O. Ackerman, Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army, Omaha, Nebr., and Prof. Gregory P. Tschebotarioff, Princeton University; Col. Herbert D. Vogel, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army; Col. C. L. Hall, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army; Brig. Gen. Paul W. Thompson, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, Retired, director, U. S. Waterways Experiment Station; Col. Frank S. Besson, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, district engineer, Galveston, Tex., and Rear Adm. Wm. H. Smith, C.E.C., U. S. Navy, Retired: Col. Frederic F. Frech, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, district engineer, Philadelphia, Pa.; Mr. Frederick H. Fay, consulting engineer, Boston, Mass.; Brig. Gen. G. B. Pillsbury, U. S. Army, retired; Mr. Harris Epstein, head design engineer waterfront structures, Bureau of Yards and Docks, U. S. Navy, and Commander F. C. Tyrrell, C.E.C., U. S. Navy, director of Engineering and Technical Division, Bureau of Yards and Docks.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE CONGRESSES OF NAVIGATION 2803

7. Copies of the 106 reports presented at the Lisbon Congress (published in 12 volumes), two semiannual bulletins, and a revised edition of PIANC regulations, were distributed to all American members.

8. A meeting of the Commission was held in Brussels, Belgium, on June 6, 1950, when the United States was represented by Maj. Gen. Philip B. Fleming, U. S. Army, Retired, chairman of the American section; Mr. J. Spencer Smith, and Col. Claude H. Chorpening, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army.

9. The membership of the American section has increased from 251 on March 31, 1947, to 409 on December 31, 1949, and to 667 on June 30, 1950.

10. The expenditures during the year from the appropriation referred to in paragraph 1 above amounted to $12,410.21, of which $9,500 was paid to the headquarters office at Brussels for the support and maintenance of the association, being the regular annual contribution for the years 1940 to 1950, inclusive, excluding 1945 and 1946, for which no appropriations were authorized. These funds were held in this country at the request of the Brussels office until needed for the expenses of the Lisbon Congress. The balance of $2,910.21 was for the payment of traveling expenses of the delegates from the United States.

INTEROCEANIC CANAL SURVEYS

The proposed canal route across Nicaragua extends from Brito on the Pacific via the Rio Grande Lake Nicaragua, the Rio San Juan, and the Rio Deseado to Greytown on the Atlantic, and is 173 miles long.

A survey of the Nicaragua route was made in 1901, and Public Resolution 99, Seventieth Congress, approved March 2, 1929, authorized a further survey to bring the data up to date, as well as an investigation of additional facilities needed at the Panama Canal, to be made under the direction of the Secretary of War and supervision of the Chief of Engineers, with the aid of such civilian engineers as the President deemed advisable. The President appointed the Interoceanic Canal Board to assist the Chief of Engineers. The Governor of the Panama Canal made the investigation at Panama, and a provisional battalion of United States engineer troops made the survey in Nicaragua.

The report of the Chief of Engineers, together with the reports of the Interoceanic Canal Board, of the Governor of the Panama Canal, and of the officer in charge of the survey, was submitted on December 5, 1931, and published in House Document No. 139, Seventy-second Congress. first session.

An officer and one non-commissioned officer are stationed in Nicaragua to continue the collection and compilation of hydrological and meteorological data pertaining to the proposed canal. During the past fiscal year the collection of these data has in volved the operation within the watershed of Lake Nicaragua of a number of rainfall stations, also stations for making fog observations, collection of evaporation data, recording lake levels and river stages, recording barometric pressure and humidity, and for gaging wind velocity and temperature.

The appropriation for the investigation and survey was $150,000, all of which had been expended by the end of the fiscal year 1943. The River and Harbor Act, approved June 30, 1938, authorized the Secretary of War to continue the gathering of hydrological data in Nicaragua under the supervision of the Chief of Engineers as recommended in House Document No. 139, Seventysecond Congress, first session, and such incidental expenses as may be necessary in connection therewith are to be paid from appropriations hereafter made for examinations, surveys, and contingencies of rivers and harbors.

The expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1950, were $9,192.00, from appropriations made for examinations, surveys, and contingencies of rivers and harbors.

It is estimated that $8,750.00 will be expended in continuing the operations during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1951.