144 
WAREHOUSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
The company may refuse to receive merchandise when its value Is not suffi 
cient to cover the customs and other dues. 
The company shall be directly responsible to the depositors for deterioration 
of effects stored, provided the deterioration is caused by any fault of the company 
or lack of proper care, but it shall not be responsible for losses or damages pro 
ceeding from the nature or condition of the merchandise nor for damage caused 
by superior force duly proved by the company, save only the obligation incum 
bent upon it by article 11 of the law of February 16, 1900. 
Art. 10. The company is authorized to rent the buildings which may be 
necessary for storage purposes until it buys or constructs the buildings referred 
to in this concession, provided the buildings rented comply with the provisions 
of article 18 of the law of February 16, 1900. 
Art. 11. The warehouses are subject to the relevant prescriptions of the gen 
eral customs laws and also to the regulations and other dispositions of a general 
character which may be decreed in the future on the subject in conformity with 
the relevant prescriptions of the general law on general warehouses. 
Art. 12. The company is obliged to have in its possession bonded warehouses 
for the storage of merchandise subject to the payment of customs dues, of the 
following dimensions : 
Those in the city of Mexico—At the end of two years from the date of this 
contract, 5,000 square meters (1 square meter—10,764 square feet) ; at the end 
of five years from the date of this contract, 7,500 square meters ; at the end of 
ten years from the date of this contract, 10,000 square meters. 
Those at the port of Veracruz—At the end of two years from the date of 
this contract, 7,500 square meters ; at the end of five years from the date of this 
contract, 10,000 square meters ; at the end of ten years from the date of this 
contract, 15,000 square meters. 
Art. 13. In the case of war, merchandise deposited in the warehouses of the 
company shall be considered as belonging to neutral owners, whatever may be 
its origin and whatever the event which may happen. 
Art. 14. The company, at the request of the interested persons, shall have 
the right to take samples from the merchandise stored in its warehouses, sub 
ject to the supervision of the customs officials. 
Art. 15. The owner of merchandise shall have the right to visit it and, with 
the supervision of employees of the warehouse and custom-house, to open and 
repair the packages as he may desire. 
Art. 16. The company shall have the right to carry on the following opera 
tions : 
I. The storage of national merchandise, foreign merchandise on which the 
customs and other dues have been paid, and foreign merchandise on which the 
customs and other dues have not been paid. 
II. All customs operations relative to the receipt, clearing, and entry of the 
merchandise. 
III. Insurance of the merchandise stored against fire in conformity with 
rates and conditions previously approved by the treasury department. 
IV. Arrangement of freights between the consignees and the railroads or 
maritime companies. 
V. The sale in commission or at public auction of merchandise stored in the 
warehouses or which merchants may remit to it for that purpose, and 
VI. In fine, all operations on commission which the commercial code permits 
for commission merchants and factors. 
Art. 17. The company shall be obliged to issue to the depositors of merchan 
dise certificates of deposit and hypothecary bonds, both on one blank, extended 
in a stub book, which are subject to the requirements of the commercial code; 
and the operatons in which they may be used are subject to the provisions of the 
same code. 
Art. 18. The company shall have the right to verify the correctness of the 
declarations of the depositors of merchandise at the time it is deposited and in 
case it discovers any errors it shall report them immediately to the respective 
custom-house, in case of foreign merchandise on which the customs and other 
dues have not been paid. 
Art. 19. If during the fixed term of duration of this contract the Federai 
Government shall make another analogous contract with any person or com 
pany, conceding rights or franchises not stipulated in this, the company herein 
named shall also enjoy said rights and franchises, complying at the same time 
with the corresponding obligations. , 
Art. 20. The Mexican Central Bank, the Mercantile Bank of Veracruz, ana