Proclamation 2247—Panama Canal Toll Rates

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas section 411 of title 2 of the Canal Zone Code, approved June 19, 1934, authorizes the President to prescribe and from time to time change the tolls that shall be levied by the Government of the United States for the use of the Panama Canal, and provides that no tolls when so prescribed shall be changed unless six months' notice thereof is given by the President by proclamation; and

Whereas section 412 of title 2 of the said Code requires the President to determine the tonnage of vessels on which toll charges for the use of the Panama Canal shall be based, and fixes maximum and minimum rates of tolls; and

Whereas the act entitled "An Act to provide for the measurement of vessels using the Panama Canal, and for other purposes", approved August 24, 1937, which amends the said section 412 and which by its terms becomes effective March 1, 1938, provides, in part, that the tonnage on which tolls shall be based shall be determined in accordance with the Rules for the Measurement of Vessels for the Panama Canal prescribed by the President, and fixes maximum and minimum rates of toll:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the aforesaid section 411 of title 2 of the Canal Zone Code, approved June 19, 1934, do hereby prescribe and proclaim the following rates of toll to be paid by vessels using the Panama Canal:

1. On merchant vessels, yachts, army and navy transports, colliers, hospital ships, and supply ships, when carrying passengers and cargo, ninety (90) cents per net-vessel ton of 100 cubic feet each of actual earning capacity—that is, the net tonnage determined in accordance with the Rules for the Measurement of Vessels for the Panama Canal.

2. On vessels in ballast without passengers or cargo, seventy-two (72) cents per net-vessel ton.

3. On other floating craft, including warships, other than transports, colliers, hospital ships, and supply ships, fifty (50) cents per ton of displacement.

The tolls prescribed by this Proclamation shall become effective on March 1, 1938, and on that date shall supersede the tolls prescribed by Proclamation No. 1225 of November 13, 1912.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 25th day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty-seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-second.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.