members of tiie Joint Ad^dsory Council shall be the legitímate spokesmen for the Puerto Riean question before the people and the Government of the United States. Therefore, those members should be freely and direetly chosen by the people, in as free and open an election as the principie of representativo government can afford.
Let the people say whom they want to be their voiee on the big issue of the status.
Members of the Joint Advisory Covtncil should be eleeted at a
specTal election and shall hold their trust for a period of four years. In order to assure the most genuino election in accordance with the wishes of the people, any civic, patriotic, economic, c,ultural or political association, organization, group or society shall have, as regards this election to the Joint Advisory Committee, the same rights as
political partios regularly organized under the insular laws, provided they file with the Executive Secretary of Puerto Rico, two
months prior to the election, a written petition signed by at least five-thousand qualified voters.
This would be a fair way af ascertaining what ''Manifest Des
iny" keeps in stock for Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico, January 8, 1944.
JVAN AVGV8T0 FEBEA
F, BENITEZ BEXACH