Directory_and_Chronicle_1879 — Page 797

COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ANNAM.

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No European nor Frenchman shall be employed in the Customs at the open ports without the consent of the Consul of France or of the French Resident near the Court of Hué before the full payment of the Spanish indemnity.

This payment terminated, if the Annamese Government thinks that its Customs officers can dispense with the assistance of French functionaries the two governments sball consider such modifications as this determination shall render necessary.

Art. VII.-The Customs of the open ports shall be directed by an Annamese functionary resident at Ninh-hai; a French functionary placed at the disposal of the Annamese Government and bearing the title of "Chief of the European service" shall reside in the same port in order to arrange with him all matters of detail having for their end the good organisation of the service.

All Europeans employed in the Customs service shall told office directly from the Chief of the European service. He shall have the right to correspond on the affairs of Customs and of commerce with the French Resident at Hué.

The Chief of the European service and the Chief of the Annamese service shall agree upon the reports to be addressed to the Minister of Finance. In case of dissent each of them may directly address this high functionary.

Art. VIII. The ranks of the personnel placed at the service of His Majesty, their official relations with the authorities of the country, as well as their emoluments, shall be arranged by consent between the two countiics.

Art. IX.-The accounts of the Customs shall be kept in duplicate, in the offices of the European service and in the financial establishments designed by the Annamese Government for the lodgment of the accounts of the dues.

Orders for the receipt of the dues shall bear the signature of the French func- tionary and that of the Annamese functionary. The same formality shall be observed when money shall be drawn from the Customs treasury to be lodged in that of the

state.

The accounts and registers shall be compared every month.

There shall be charged to the product of light and anchorage dues, and in case of their insufficiency to the product of the Customs dues, always provided the charge does not exceed one-half of the revenue derived from the latter, the following:

1. The pay of the Europeans employed in the Customs at the open ports of Annam; that of the Annamese or other employés of the same service.

2. The construction and maintenance of the Customs office.

3.-The construction and maintenance of light-houses, light-ships, and buoys. 4.-The works of sounding and dredging.

Lastly, all the recognised necessary expenses for facilitating and promoting the development of commercial enterprise.

Art. XI. The tariff of dues established by the present convention shall be in force for ten years from the date of the exchange of the ratifications; during this period it shall be modified only by the common consent of the High Contracting Parties and not within one year at last from the time that the proposition shall have been made by one of them.

Art. XII.-All disputes between foreigners and the Customs officers as to the application of the Customs regulations shall be decided by the Consul and an Anna- mese magistrate.

Art. XIII.—A French or foreign vessel arriving in the waters of one of the ports open to foreign trade shall have the right of engaging such pilot as is required to take the vessel immediately into port, and likewise a ship having paid all legal charges and being ready to leave shall not be refused pilots to enable the ship to leave without delay.

Any individual who may wish to exercise the profession of pilot for foreign vessels shall on the presentation of three certificates from shipmasters be commissioned by the French Consul and the Captain of the Port.

The remuneration to be paid to the pilots shall be equitably regulated at each port by the Consul or Consular Agent and the Captain of the Port according to the distance and difficulties of the navigation.