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bonds and the protection of registration, and that when registered bonds have been so assigned as to make them payable to bearer and thereby lose the protection of registration, they may then be held by any person as his own property,' and when lost or stolen from the possession of their rightful owner, duplicates therefor may not be issued by the Secretary of the Treasury."

In addition to the fact that subsequent transferees of the bond can not obtain title to the same because of the invalid assignment, the Government is amply protected by section 3705, R. S., which provides:

"The owner of such missing bond shall first file in the Treasury a bond in a penal sum equal to the amount of such missing bond, and the interest which would accrue thereon, until the principal thereof becomes due and payable, with two good and sufficient sureties, residents of the United States, to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, with condition to indemnify and save harmless the United States from any claim because of the lost or destroyed bond." I am, therefore, of the opinion that you are authorized by section 3704 of the Revised Statutes to issue a duplicate of the stolen bond.

Respectfully,

WILLIAM D. MITCHELL.

To the SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

BOULDER CANYON PROJECT-RATIFICATION BY UTAH

The ratification of the Colorado River compact by the State of Utah conforms to the requirements of the applicable provisions of the Boulder Canyon Project Act. (45 Stat. 1057.)

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

June 22, 1929.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the letter of Acting Secretary Dixon of June 18, 1929, requesting my opinion as to whether the State of Utah has complied with the requirements of the Act of December 21, 1928, Public, No. 642, Seventieth Congress, relative to the Boulder Canyon project. (45 Stat. 1057.)

The applicable provision of the Boulder Canyon Project Act is contained in section 4 (a) thereof, and reads as follows:

"This Act shall not take effect and no authority shall be exercised hereunder and no work shall be begun and no moneys expended on or in connection with the works or structures provided for in this Act, and no water rights shall be claimed or initiated hereunder, and no steps shall be taken by the United States or by others to initiate or perfect any claims to the use of water pertinent to such works or structures unless and until (1) the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming shall have ratified the Colorado River compact, mentioned in section 13 hereof, and the President by public proclamation shall have so declared, or (2) if said States fail to ratify the said compact within six months from the date of the passage of this Act then, until six of said States, including the State of California, shall ratify said compact and shall consent to waive the provisions of the first paragraph of Article XI of said compact, which makes the same binding and obligatory only when approved by each of the seven States signatory thereto, and shall have approved said compact without conditions, save that of such six-State approval, and the President by public proclamation shall have so declared, (45 Stat.

1058.)

* * * ""

Pursuant to an Act of August 19, 1921 (c. 72, 42 Stat. 171), the State of Utah participated in negotiations contemplated thereby, and the resulting compact, called the Colorado River compact, dated November 24, 1922, was ratified by the Legislature of that State by the Act of January 29, 1923 (Laws of Utah, 1923, c. 5). The compact provided in Article XI that it should become binding when approved by the legislatures of each of the seven signatory States and by the Congress of the United States. When it appeared to be impossible to secure the consent of all seven States, the legislature of Utah passed another Act (Laws of Utah, 1925, c. 64), waiving the provisions of Article XI of the compact and providing that it should become binding upon approval of at least six of the signatory States and the Congress, pro

vided that similar action should be taken by the other ratifying States.

A dispute later arose between the State of Utah and the United States with respect to the title to the bed of the Colorado River and other rivers within the State. The question of title depends upon the question of navigability. If these rivers are navigable, the beds thereof belong to the State; if they are nonnavigable, the beds belong to the United States. Litigation is now pending to determine this controversy.

In 1927 the Legislature of Utah repealed chapter 64 of the Laws of 1925 (Laws of Utah, 1927, c. 1) and enacted another law (Laws of Utah, 1927, c. 9), declaring that the Colorado and Green Rivers in Utah were navigable streams and that title to the beds thereof was vested in the State of Utah. The latter Act further declared that the adherence of the State of Utah to paragraph (a) of Article IV of the Colorado River compact, which recited, in part, that "the Colorado River has ceased to be navigable for commerce," was not intended and should not be construed to be a declaration or admission that the Colorado River had ceased to be navigable for intrastate commerce, nor a relinquishment or waiver of any right, title, or interest of Utah in or to the bed of the Colorado River.

Following the enactment by Congress of the Boulder Canyon Project Act of December 21, 1928, the Utah legislature passed another Act (Laws of Utah, 1929, c. 31), approved March 6, 1929, which again waived the provisions of Article XI of the compact and provided that it should become binding whenever at least six of the signatory States, including the State of California, should have approved it "without condition save that of six-State approval" and Congress should have given its consent and approval, provided that a similar Act should be adopted by six of the signatory States, including California.

The purpose of chapter 9 of the 1927 Laws of Utah seems to have been to relieve the State of an admission in the compact which might be prejudicial to the position of the State in its litigation with the United States. But with respect to the adherence of the State to the compact, the latest enactment, chapter 31 of the 1929 Laws approved March

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6, 1929, clearly shows that the Legislature intended the ratification by that State to be "without condition save that of six-State approval."

For the foregoing reasons, I have the honor to advise you that in my opinion the ratification of the Colorado River compact by the State of Utah conforms to the requirements of the applicable provisions of the Boulder Canyon Project Act.

Respectfully,

WILLIAM D. MITCHELL.

To the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

TRANSFER OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS TO NATIONAL PARK SERVICE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

It is not within the Executive authority to transfer the national monuments now under administration of the War Department and the Department of Agriculture to the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

July 8, 1929

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of May 15, 1929, asking to be advised whether it is within Executive authority to transfer the national monuments, now under the administration of the War Department and the Department of Agriculture, to the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior.

I understand that there are now about sixty-one national monuments, as distinguished from national parks and other reservations, of which fourteen are administered by the Secretary of War, fifteen by the Secretary of Agriculture, and the remainder by the Secretary of the Interior.

With few exceptions, these national monuments have been created by Presidential proclamations under the authority of section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906, c. 3060, 34 Stat. 225 (U. S. C., title 16, section 431), entitled "An act for the preservation of American antiquities," which provides: "That the President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are

situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a part thereof parcels of land. the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected: Provided, That when such objects are situated upon a tract covered by a bona fide unperfected claim or held in private ownership, the tract, or so much thereof as may be necessary for the proper care and management of the object, may be relinquished to the Government, and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to accept the relinquishment of such tracts in behalf of the Government of the United States."

In exceptional cases, reservations now generally classified as national monuments have been created directly by Acts of Congress. Such are the Act of March 4, 1907, c. 2928, 34 Stat. 1411, with respect to the completion of a monument to the memory of soldiers who fell in the Battle of New Orleans, now generally known as the Chalmette National Monument, and the Act of March 3, 1925, c. 425, 43 Stat. 1109, with respect to the restoration of Fort McHenry, Maryland.

Since the Constitution (Article IV, section 3, clause 2) vests in Congress the "Power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States," the directions of Congress are controlling with respect to the administration of territories set apart as reservations for various purposes. Where Congress has itself designated the supervising authority, either expressly or by fair implication, it is not within Executive authority to alter such designation. It is to be observed that section 2 of the Act of June 8. 1906, above quoted, contains no language expressly designating the executive departments which are to have jurisdiction over the national monuments which the President is authorized to create by proclamation. It does not necessarily follow, however, that Congress intended to vest in the President authority to make such designation. The national monuments created under that section must be "situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States." All such lands are under the juris

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