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CONVENTION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA.
officer of the board at Kiachita. All [such communications, &c.] shall be in accordance with the provisions of the eighth Article of this convention.
The said Generals, Governors, and other officers shall correspond on terms of equality, in accordance with the second article of the Tientsin Treaty. Moreover, if the dispatches written refer to business that ought not be entered upon, no attention shall be paid to them. In respect of frontier business of great importance, the Governor General of Eastern Siberia shall communicate thercon with either the Privy Council or the Foreign Office.
Art. 10.--All frontier business, whether of importance or otherwise, shall be managed by conjoint action on the part of the frontier officers, as laid down in the eighth article on this convention; and, as provided for by the seventh article of the Tientsin Treaty, offenders shall be tried and punished in accordance with the laws of that one of the two countries to which they may belong.
Should cattle stray or be decoyed across the frontier boundaries, the officers of the locality on being informed of the fact by official communication, shall, without delay, dispatch people to search for them; they shall likewise give full information to the soldiery at the frontier ports, who shall be bound to recover and send back such cattle, whether straying or stolen, in accordance with the numbers reported in the original communication; and who, should they fail to restore the property that is missing shall be punished, as the laws direct, in a hummer proportionate to the value of what is lust. No claim for compensation shall be entertained.
In the event of runaways crossing the frontier, measures shall be taken for their discovery and arrest immediately upon the receipt of an official requisition to that effect; and, on the arrest having been effected, the prisoners, with whatever property may be found in their possession, shall be handed over to the nearest frontier officer, whose duty it shall be to ascertain the place from which such persons may have absconded,
The runaways, while on the return journey under arrest, shall be supplied with food, and, if naked, with clothes; and they shall neither be maltreated nor insulted by the soldiers. Runaways arrested prior to the receipt of any such official requisition, shall also be dealt with in like manner.
Art. 11.-Answers shall be returned to communications transmitted through interme- diate officers by the High Officials on the frontiers. The despatches of the Governoi General of Eastern Siberia and of the Koo-pih-url-na-to-urh (? Governor) of Kiachta shall be handed to the Ko-me-sa-urh (? Commissioner or Commissary Genera!) of Kiachta for transmission to the officer of the board. The despatches of the High Officer stationed at Koolum shall be handed to the officer of the board for transmission to the Ko-me-sa- urh of Kiachta. The despatches of the Koo-pih-urh-na-to-urh of the Amoor province, shall be forwarded to the Tartar General at Hih-lung-keang through the Adjutant General, who shall likewise transmit the despatches of the Kee-lin General. Despatches passing between the Koo-pil-urh-na-to-urh of the Tung-hae-peen province and the General stationed at Kee-lin, shall be transmitted through the officers at the frontier ports of Hongchun in the Usuri territory. Communications between the Governor General of Western Siberia and the General stationed at Ili, shall be transmitted through the Russian Consul at Ili. Whenever the business in question is of great importance, official messengers shall be employed. The Governor General of Eastern and Western Siberia and the various Koo-pih-urh-na-to-urh (? Governors General of Eastern and Western, Siberia and the various Koo-pih-urh na-to-urh (? Governors of Provincial Districts) together with the High Offi er at Koo-lun, and the Tartar General stationed at Hih-lung- koang, Kee-lin, and Ili, in the transmission of official communications, may entrust them to trustworthy Russian officers,
Art. 12. As was stipulated for in the eleventh article of the Tientsin Treaty, the time allowed for the conveyance of official documents and parcels from Kiachta to Peking is herein defined.
Letters shall be forwarded once a month; Parcels and boxes, from Kiachta to Peking, shall be forwarded once every two months, and quarterly from Peking to Kiachta. Official documents shall not be more than twenty, nor parcels more than forty days en route; and as regards parcels, there shall never be more than twenty packages forwarded
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