proved that in the port of Buenos Aires there was no seed from that country. The firm was, therefore, sentenced to pay losses and damages sustained equivalent to the difference between the price agreed upon and that obtained afterwards by the ship, plus interests, but without costs.

Comparative Law, Institute of Public Law. The Board of Governors of the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires has authorized the creation of the Institute of Public Law, an official entity dependent on the said Faculty and presided over by Dr. Mariano de Vedia y Mitre. The purpose of the Institute will be to centralize the study, investigation, compilation of reports, scientific activities and other data pertaining to political, constitutional, provisional and municipal law. The Institute's work will be purely objective and will furnish investigators with a wealth of information regarding the problems of a modern State either on the basis of doctrine or of comparative constitutional legislation.

Labor, Employment of Minors. A report has been published by the Argentine Industrial Union (Union Industrial Argentina) showing that there are at present, in the city of Buenos Aires, a total of 10,800 minors between the ages of 14 and 17 years employed in factories. The total population of the Republic comprised within these ages, the report states, numbers 500,000 boys and 469,000 girls, of which 63,000 are matriculated in colleges and technical schools.

The report states that the present law governing the employment of minors makes it difficult for industrial concerns to give them any kind of specialized training, most of them being employed as messengers and errand boys. The proposed new legislation, as presented to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, is looked upon by the Argentine Industrial Union as a welcome reform, which would allow these workers to be trained in specialized occupations so that they can be classified as technical workers when they arrive at the legal age of 18 years.

Labor, Workmen's Compensation. In a joint session the Tribunals of the Justice of the Peace have decided that the smallest indemnity which can be conceded to an employee is 1 month's salary, regardless of whether he has been with the firm for less than 1 year, provided he has been at his job for over 3 months. Three months is the maximum trial period in Argentina.

Labor, Dismissals, Law 11,729. In a case recently brought before the Argentine Court of Appeal, the following decision was handed down which clears up various doubtful points in the application of the commercial labor law (No. 11,729):

An employee who abandons his work to take a vacation without the consent of his employer, cannot claim indemnity for dismissal without a legitimate reason. An employee cannot accumulate vacation leave. If he has not been granted that leave in previous years, that right has been definitely forfeited. For example, if he failed to take his vacation or was not granted leave for that purpose in 1935, 1936, 1937, or 1938 he cannot claim to have these taken into consideration in 1939 and, of course, he has no right whatsoever to pecuniary

compensation for leave not taken. An employee has no right to annual leave until he has completed twelve months' service or a cycle of twelve months in case he has been on the payroll longer and has not taken leave of absence for vacation purposes. The employer has the undisputed right of selecting the time when the employee may go on leave. The employee can never arrogate this right to himself.

Labor, Conditions of Employment. When a certain employee was transferred from one department to another in order to avoid incessant quarrels with his immediate superior, he refused to accept the change, although his salary had not been altered, and stayed away from work. Subsequently the employee brought the case to court, alleging dismissal without notice. In deciding the case the Appeal Court handed down the following opinion:

The employer may so arrange the work of his personnel that the best results may be obtained from their efforts. He has the right to change the hours of service and the nature of the task to which his employees may be assigned, provided that they are, in a close degree, of the same nature. He must not, however, radically change the conditions of employment. If the new hours of service and nature of duties, etc., do not alter the conditions of employment to any great extent, the employee who refuses to accept the new hours, etc., has no legal right to recover indemnification if summarily dismissed because of the said refusal to obey orders.

Divorce, Foreign Decrees. As divorce does not exist in Argentina and legal separation only is granted (which does not permit remarrying), certain lawyers have attempted to help their clients by obtaining divorce decrees in Mexico. This practice was being gradually extended until recently, when a joint session of the Fiscals of the Civil Courts was held to consider the matter. After an extensive exchange of opinions it was unanimously concluded that divorces granted in other countries would not be recognized in Argentina and that, therefore, permission would not be divorced parties to remarry. "This joint meeting", says La Nacion of July 27, 1939, "proves that there exists no fundamental difference of opinion on the matter among the judges, and has served to define the measures to be taken in order to impede the continuation of practices which are injurious to our social and family organization."

CUBA Contracts, The Contract of Purchase and Sale.

granted the

Correction: An article entitled "The Contract of Purchase and Sale in Cuba" was published in our August number. Due to an oversight in checking dictated text, a correction should be made at p. 367, under the caption, "Claims for Defects." The phrase "physical injuries" should read "partical failure of consideration."

CZECHOSLOVAKIA - Industrial Property, Validity of Patents and Trade Marks.

According to the Office of the American Commercial Attache, Berlin, the following statejent on the patent and trade mark situation in

former Czechoslovak territory has been made by the President of the Prague Patent Office:

(a) The validity of patents Protectorate.

continues in effect in the

(b) No arrangement has been made as yet, as far as the ceded areas are concerned, concerning the validity of patents granted for the entire territory of the former Czechoslovak Republic.

Such steps must be taken by those countries to which areas have been ceded and not by the Protectorate. In other words, rights derived from the granting of patents by the Patent Office of the former Czechoslovak Republic and referring to the ceded areas can be recognized only by that state to which such areas were ceded.

(c) New rights acquired in the Protectorate are granted on the same basis as in former Czechoslovakia but, of course, only for the territory of the Protectorate.

As regards the patent rights acquired in former Czechoslovakia and referring to the territories ceded to Germany, it is further stated by the Reichspatentamt, Berlin, that the validity of such patents continues in effect in these territories. New regulations affecting such patents acquired in former Czechoslovakia prior to the cessions to Germany have not been issued. The Reichspatentamt is not cognizant of the status of old patent rights in the territories ceded by Czechoslovakia to Poland and Hungary.

The Journal Officiel of August 3, 1939, publishes a decree-law, dated July 29, 1939, relative to the control of cinema receipts. The decree-law is preceded by a report stating that on March 17, 1939, the Government introduced into the Chamber of Deputies bill No. 5445, tending to fix the statute of the cinematographic industry. The report states, according to the Office of the American Commercial Attache, Paris, that a special chapter of the bill is devoted to the organization of the control over cinemas, in a way to safeguard both the interests of the Treasury, those of the authors, producers, editors, and distributors of films and those of the managers of theaters. This latter measure is closely related to the defense of the public finances. From this fact, it presents a character of urgency, which commands that it be deleted from the bill now before Parliament, to be the object of the present decree-law. The provisions of the decree-law are of a general character and apply to all categories of theaters.

A translation of the present decree-law is as follows:

Article 1. Article 476 of the code of indirect taxes is completed as follows:

The manufacturers, importers, or traders in all books or reels of entrance tickets for theaters are required to subscribe a declaration of profession at the office of the indirect tax collector. The manufacturers, importers, or traders must, in addition, declare their deliveries of tickets to the managers of theaters, in specifying:

(1) The names and addresses of the establishments to which destined.

(2) The number of the tickets delivered by category of places (seats), as well as the numbers and the color of the tickets and the price of the places.

These declarations must be sent within the eight days following their delivery, to the director of the indirect tax service of the department in which the theaters are exploited and, for Paris, to the director-general of public assistance at the prefecture of the Seine. The deliveries made to the managers of traveling or itinerant theaters must be notified in the departments in which is situated the domicile of these latter, as well as in those in which their activity is exercised.

The managers of theaters who buy their tickets directly abroad are considered as importers and are required to make the declaration provided in the present article.

The tickets must bear the legible indication either of the name of the manufacturer, if they are made in France, or the name of the importer, if they come from abroad.

Independently of the penalties provided by article 477, any failure of declaration or any false declaration renders the seller or the importer liable to the taxes relating to the receipts represented by the non-declared tickets. In addition, the parties concerned may be prohibited, by a simple administrative decision, from furnishing or importing tickets.

The managers of theaters are accountable for the receipts represented by the tickets received. Within eight days from the publication of the present decree, they are required to declare, to the service charged with the fiscal control of their establishment, the number, by categories, of the tickets in their possession.

Article 2. When there has been created a central professional organization of control and of statistics of the cinematography industry, interministerial orders counter-signed by the Ministers of National Education and of Finance may require, on the one hand, that duplicates of the declarations of profession and of delivery be transmitted to that organization and, on the other hand, that a special mark be placed on the stub, the ticket, and the control coupon. There interministerial orders will fix, if required, the conditions under which the authorization to reproduce this mark on the tickets may be granted to the printers.

Infractions to the provisions of the present article and of the interministerial orders issued for its application will be punished, independently of the fiscal penalties incurred, by imprisonment from six days to three months or by a fine of 1,000 francs to 10,000 francs. In addition, the above-mentioned organization may intervene in the prosecutions as civil party to the suit.

Article 3. The functionaries charged with collecting the State

tax or the local taxes in the theaters are authorized to furnish to the societies of authors, editors, composers, or distributors, and eventually to the professional control organization and of statistics, all information relative to the receipts taken in by the enterprises subjected to their control. The same societies or control organizations must, on their part, communicate to the above-mentioned

functionaries all documents relative to the declarations subscribed by the managers of theaters, including the declarations of receipts subscribed with the view of the payment of authors' rights, and all indications gathered at the time of verifications made in the theaters.

Article 4. The present decree, which will be submitted to the ratification of the Chambers, in conformity with the provisions of the law of March 19, 1939, will be applicable in the Departments of Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, and Moselle.

Article 5. The Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense and of War and the Minister of Finance are charged, in so far as each is concerned, with the execution of the present decree, which will be published in the Journal Officiel.

A decree dated February 18, 1939, published in the Journal Officiel of February 20, fixed new rates of taxes on Paris cinemas, to be applied as a trial from March 1 to March 31, 1939, and these provisions have been prolonged every month since then; the prolongation to July 31, 1939, was made by a decree dated July 13, published in the Journal Officiel of July 18. The State tax on cinemas situated elsewhere in France than Paris remains as fixed by articles 474 and 475 of the code of indirect taxes.

FRANCE

Restrictions Against Aliens, Regulation of Merchants.

A French decree-law of June 17, 1938, has provided that foreign businessmen (commercants), merchants, and industrialists who desire to exercise a profession or do business in France may enjoy treatment equivalent to that which is applied to foreigners in their country of origin, and especially to Frenchmen who exercise the same profession. The same decree specifies, among other things, that in the different categories of industry and commerce a percentage of the number of foreigners who may exercise their activities may be fixed after notice from chambers of commerce and economic groups. The conditions of application of these provisions are to be determined by decrees, and it was provided that negotiations would be entered into for the purpose of adapting existing agreements (conventions) to the case with these new provisions where they are not compatible with existing international understandings.

Finally, the law provides that all infractions of the provisions should be punished by a fine of from 100 to 2,000 francs and imprisonment from 1 to 6 months, either one or both penalties, and in the case of a second offense, the penalties would be doubled and the closing of the establishment ordained. Such a regulation was one of extremely delicate application and insufficient as well.

Another decree of November 12, 1938, without abrogating the decree of June 17, 1938, provided that all commercial foreigners should carry an identification card, with a description of the bearer set out on the card.

Under the terms of article 1 of the decree of November 12, 1938, all foreigners are prohibited from conducting an industrial or commercial business within French territory without possessing a special identification card marked "Commercant", issued by the head of the foreign department and which extends to the foreigner the right to conduct a business or trade subject to the rules and regulations fixed by the decree of February 2, 1939.