Section 2
SEC. 2. The Secretary of Commerce and Police is hereby authorized to modify or renew the aforesaid contracts when necessary, or to enter into new contracts for such route or routes within the Philippine Islands as he may deem necessary or desirable at any time on the general terms and conditions set forth in section one of Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten: Provided, however, That— (a) Bids therefor need not be advertised in the United States; (b) No contract shall be entered into or renewed for a period extending beyond January first, nineteen hundred and fifteen. Provided, further, however, That in order to avoid the disarrangement of the present system of transportation during the period from the expiration of the former contracts until the time of the execution of new contracts here-under, the Secretary of Commerce and Police, is authorized to make temporary arrangements for the continuance in force on terms approved by him of such of the former contracts as he may deem advisable, from the date of the expiration of the former contracts until the time of the execution of the new contracts contemplated and authorized by this Act, and to authorize the payment during that time as subsidies for services rendered. Such contracts may contain a provision for the payment of subsidies from this appropriation to the contracting steamship companies: Provided, however, That the total subsidy payment, called for by the terms of the contracts entered into under the authority of Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten and the resolutions mentioned in the first section of this Act, and the contracts authorized by this section shall not exceed the funds available under the provisions of this Act.