Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 59 Part 2.djvu/998

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CHILE-HEALTH AND SANITATION PROGRAM-MAY 5, 11, 1943 1681 The undersigned Minister appreciates and accepts the cooperation offered, with the understanding that the details of this general pro- posal will be the subject of agreements between the appropriate official of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and the Director General of Health, in his capacity as representative of the National Health Service of Chile, on whom it is incumbent, in accordance with our legislation, to propose to the Government the manner of solving our health problems and to carry out the corres- ponding works. As a matter of fact, the political Constitution entrusts to the Na- tional Health Service the care of the public health and sanitary welfare of the country, and the Sanitary Code provides, in Article 4, that this Service shall be under the Director General of Health, who will exercise his functions in accordance with the powers and duties which the laws assign to him, to the exclusion of any other authority. Furthermore, the same Code, in its Article 269, authorizes this Service to receive and administer donations with the object of apply- ing them to public health purposes. As Your Excellency states, all the projects completed in the execu- tion of this program shall be the property of the Government of Chile. Consequently, I beg to ask that Your Excellency be so kind as to inform the representative of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter- American Affairs that he may deal with the Director General of Health, who has the necessary capacity to conclude agreements with respect to procedure and other details connected with the prosecution of the cooperative program of health and sanitation and to the investment of the funds in question, with the understanding that the Supreme Government will approve his acts. The Supreme Government will provide the necessary facilities for the organization of the special Department in the National Health Service, to which Your Excellency refers, and will also contribute an amount to be determined in due course for financing such plan of sanitation works as may be agreed upon. Finally, the undersigned begs to suggest to Your Excellency the desirability of indicating to this Ministry the name of the official who would represent the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and the powers with which he will act for the desired purposes. I avail myself of the present opportunity to renew to Your Excel- lency the assurances of my highest and most distinguished considera- tion. JOAQUfN FERNANDEZ F. His Excellency, CLAUDE G. BOWERS, Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of the United States in Chile, City. 59 STAT.]