372 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, NOVEMBER 5, 1920.
For the purpose of this provision, the pre-war rate of exchange shall be defined as the average cable transfer rate prevailing in the Allied or Associated country- concerned during the month immediately preceding the outbreak of war between the Power con- cerned and Bulgaria.
If a contract provides for a fixed rate of exchange governing the conversion of the currency in which the debt is stated into the currency of the Allied or Associated Power concerned, then the above provisions concerning the rate of exchange shall not apply.
In the case of the new States of Poland and Czecho-Slovakia, the currency in which and the rate of exchange at which debts shall be paid or credited shall be determined by the Reparation Commission provided for in Part VII. (Reparation), unless they shall have been previously settled by agreement between the States interested.
. ANNEX. 22.
Subject to any special agreement to the contrary between the Governments concerned, debts shall carry interest in accordance with the following provisions :
Interest shall not be payable on sums of money due by way of dividend, interest, or other periodical payments which themselves represent interest on capital.
The rate of interest shall be 5 per cent, per annum except in cases where, by con- tract, law, or custom the creditor is entitled to payment of interest at a different rate. In such cases the rate to which he is entitled shall prevail.
Interest shall run from the date of commencement of hostilities (or, if the sum of money to be recovered fell duo during the war, from the date at which it fell due) until the sum is eredited to the Clearing Office of the creditor.
SECTION IV; - PROPERTY, RIGHTS AND INTERESTS.
ARTICLE 177.
The question of private property, rights and interests in an enemy country shall be settled according to the principles laid down in this Section and to the provisions of the
Annex hereto.
(a) The exceptional war measures and measures of transfer (defined in paragraph 3 of the Annex hereto) taken by Bulgaria with respect to the property, rights and interests of nationals of Allied or Associated Powers, including companies and associations in which they are interested, when liquidation has not been completed, shall be immediately discontinued or stayed and the property, rights and interests concerned restored to their owners, who shall enjoy full rights therein in accordance with the provisions of Article 178. The Bulga- rian Government will revoke all legislative or administrative provisions which it may have made during the war forbidding companies of Allied and Associated. nationality or companies in which Allied or Associated nationals are interested to enjoy the benefit of concessions or contracts in Bulgaria.
(b) Subject to any contrary stipulations which may be provided for in the present Treaty, the Allied and Associated Powers reserve the right to retain and liquidate all property, rights and interests belonging at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty to Bulgarian nationals, or companies con- trolled by them, within their territories, colonies, possessions and protecto- rates, including territories ceded to them by the present Treaty.
The liquidation shall be carried out in accordance with the laws of the Allied or Associated State concerned, and the Bulgarian owner shall not be able to dispose of such property, rights and interests nor to subject them to any charge without the consent of that State.
Bulgarian nationals who acquire ipso facto the nationality of an Allied or Associated Power in accordance with the provisions of the present Treaty will not be considered as Bulgarian nationals within the meaning of this paragraph.
(c) The price or the amount of compensation in respect of the exercise of the right referred to in paragraph (6) will be fixed in accordance with the methods of sale or valuation adopted by the laws of the country in which the property has been retained or liquidated.
2
R