erecting thereon lighthouses, beacons, lighthouse keepers' dwellings, hospitals, sanatoriums, works for improving navigation, post offices, customhouses, fortifications, or buildings and structures for the storage, manufacture or production of supplies, ordinance, apparatus or equipment of any kind whatsoever for the use of the army or navy, and any other needful buildings and structures, and all deeds, conveyances or other papers relating to the title thereof shall be recorded in the office of the register, if any, or if not in the office of the county clerk, of the county where the said lands are situated." Under section 3, when there shall have been duly filed and recorded in the office of the secretary of state of the State of New York certified copies of the record or transfer to the United States of lands acquired under the Act, together with maps or plats, descriptions by metes and bounds, and a certificate of the Attorney General of the United States that the United States is in possession under a clear and complete title, etc., the governor of the State" is authorized, if he deems it proper, to execute in duplicate, in the name of the State and under its great seal, a deed or release of the State ceding to the United States the jurisdiction of said tracts or parcels of land as hereinafter provided." Section 8 provides that the statute shall not apply to the county of Orange. The Act of April 5, 1899 (Laws 1899, c. 242), gave consent to acquisition by the United States of parcels of land not exceeding 2 acres in extent, within cities of the State, for the purpose of erecting public buildings for "post offices and other Government offices." It was amended by Laws 1907, c. 375, so as to include villages and, so amended, was incorporated as Article XI, Chapter XXIV, in the Consolidated Laws (Laws 1909, c. 29). It now reads as follows: "The United States is hereby authorized to acquire by condemnation, purchase or gift in conformity with the laws of this State, one or more pieces of land not exceeding 2 acres in extent, in any city or village of this State, for the purpose of erecting and maintaining thereon a public building for the accommodation of post offices and other governmental offices in any such city or village." Section 2 provides that when certified copies of the record or transfer to the United States shall have been duly filed and recorded in the office of the secretary of state of New York, together with maps and descriptions by metes and bounds, "exclusive jurisdiction * * is thereupon ceded to the United States over the land so described, during the time that the United States shall be or remain the owner thereof." * Writing you upon this same subject on April 4, 1916, the Attorney General stated the following conclusions: "Both of these acts express the consent of the State of New York to the acquisition by the United States, for various purposes, of lands therein situated, and, in my opinion, satisfy the requirements of section 355, R. S. (24 Op. 617; 15 Op. 480; 7 Op., 628). "I am of opinion that the formalities prescribed in section 2 of the last-mentioned Act [April 5, 1899] for the purposes of evidencing such consent should be followed in case property is acquired in cities or villages for the erection of a Federal building for the accommodation of post offices and other governmental offices of the kind and character described in your communication. "In case lands are acquired for purposes other than those above mentioned, and which are enumerated in the first section of the Act of April 17, 1896, as amended, the formalities prescribed in section 3 of that Act should be followed." Since that time the amendment of 1917 has added the words" aviation fields * or buildings and structures for the storage, manufacture, or production of supplies, ordnance, apparatus, or equipment of any kind whatsoever for the use of the Army or Navy," and the amendment of 1922 has added the words "hospitals, sanatoriums and any other needful buildings and structures," in the places where they now appear in the statute. * * * The amendment of 1922 apparently was prompted by the following request addressed to the Governor of New York by the Secretary of the Treasury under date of January 16, 1922: "I have the honor to request you to recommend to the State legislature in its present session the passage of a special Act providing for cession of State jurisdiction (as in the case of the site for the marine hospital at Stapleton, Staten Island, New York, for which a special Act of cession was passed March 27, 1903) over the hospital lands herein described, and over such other lands as may hereafter be acquired by the Federal Government for hospital or sanatorium purposes within the State of New York; or, preferably, the passage of an amendment to the general cession law of 1896, supra, so as to grant prior general consent to the purchase of land required for any purpose of the Government', or for 'needful public buildings', in whatever terms are considered most applicable to remove the limitation to the particular classes of buildings enumerated in the said law." It is suggested that the Act of April 17, 1896, thus amended, is now so broad as to cover all requirements for Federal building sites, including sites "for post offices and other governmental offices" in cities and villages, heretofore considered to be provided for by the Act of April 5, 1899, so that the latter statute need no longer be considered, and it is upon this precise question, I understand, that you desire my opinion. In so far as post-office sites are concerned, it is clear that nothing which has happened since the opinion of April 4, 1916, need affect the conclusion there reached. The Act of April 17, 1896, has always purported to cover post-office sites, and the original limitation to parcels of land upon or adjacent to navigable waters had been stricken out by the amendment of April 19, 1910. With respect to sites for "other governmental offices" in cities and villages, also covered by the Act of April 5, 1899, there is no apparent reason for a different conclusion. I find no express repeal of that statute, nor any implied repeal in the subsequent legislation. To the extent that it is applicable it has heretofore been availed of. It provides for cession of jurisdiction upon the filing of the prescribed documents; the other statute merely authorizes the governor, "if he deems it proper," to execute a deed of cession. It applies, apparently, to acquisitions of land within any city. or village of the State; the other expressly excludes Orange County-and even now the United States is negotiating the purchase of a post-office site in Newburg, Orange County I must, therefore, conclude now, as this Department did in 1916, that both the Act of April 17, 1896, and the Act of April 5, 1899, as they have been respectively amended, express the consent of the legislature of the State of New York to the acquisition of land by the United States within their respective limitations; that the latter should be complied with in the matter of sites, not exceeding 2 acres in extent, for “post offices and other governmental offices" in cities or villages, as has been done in the past, and that the former should be complied with in the matter of other acquisitions of land embraced within the scope of its language. Respectfully, WILLIAM D. MITCHELL. To the SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM-STATE MEMBER BANKS ESTABLISHING OR ACQUIRING FOREIGN BRANCHES A State member bank of the Federal reserve system can not, since February 25, 1927, establish a branch in a foreign country and continue to hold stock in a Federal reserve bank. A State member bank of the Federal reserve system can not acquire a branch established in a foreign country since February 25, 1927 by consolidating with a State bank which has absorbed or taken over a liquidating national bank having such foreign branch and continue to retain stock in the Federal reserve bank. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, SIP: I have the honor to comply with your request of June 13, 1929, for an expression of my opinion in regard to the following questions submitted by you: "(1) Whether a State member bank of the Federal reserve system may, since February 25, 1927, establish a branch in a foreign country and continue to hold stock in a Federal Reserve Bank; and "(2) Whether a State member bank of the Federal reserve system may acquire a branch in a foreign country by consolidating with a State bank which has absorbed or taken over a liquidating national bank having such a foreign branch established since February 25, 1927, in the manner described, and continue to retain stock in the Federal reserve bank." You state that the Federal Reserve Board is confronted with the question whether a State member bank of the Federal reserve system, since February 25, 1927, may establish a branch in a foreign country or may acquire a branch which has been established since that date, and at the same time continue to hold stock in a Federal reserve bank. It is further stated that a certain State member bank of the Federal reserve system desires to establish or acquire a branch in a foreign country, and that the bank is authorized under the laws of the State of its organization to establish a foreign branch. The applicable provision of the Federal Reserve Act is contained in section 9 thereof (38 Stat. 259), as amended by the Act of February 25, 1927, c. 191, 44 Stat. 1224, 1229, which provides: "Any bank incorporated by special law of any State, or organized under the general laws of any State or of the United States, desiring to become a member of the Federal reserve system, may make application to the Federal Reserve Board, under such rules and regulations as it may prescribe, for the right to subscribe to the stock of the Federal reserve bank organized within the District in which the applying bank is located. Such application shall be for the same amount of stock that the applying bank would be required to subscribe to as a national bank. The Federal Reserve Board, subject to the provisions of this Act and to such conditions as it may prescribe pursuant thereto may permit the applying bank to become a stockholder of such Federal reserve bank. "Any such State bank which, at the date of the approval of this Act, has established and is operating a branch or branches in conformity with the State law, may retain and operate the same while remaining or upon be |