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COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ANNAM.
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Art. XIV.—As soon as the pilot shall have brought a foreign merchant ship into port the Chief of Customs shall senl one or more overseers to insp c. the vessel and prevent fraud. These overseers shall, according to their convenience, remain on their own boats or on board the vessel. Tae cost of their maintenance and their salaries shall be charged upon the Customs and they may not demand any remuneration whatever from the captain or the consignees. Every contravention of this regulation shall entail a punishment proportiona e to the amount of the exaction, and the latter shall be returned in entirety.
Art. XV. Within twenty-four hours following the arrival of a foreign merchaut ship at one of the open ports, the captain, unless he be unavoidably prevented, aud, failing him, the supercargo or the consignee, shall present themselves at the French Consulate and place in the hauds of the Consul the ship's papers and the manifest. Within the following twenty-four hours the Consul shall send to the Chief of Customs an extract from the roll of the ship and a detailed note of the name of the ship, her legal tonnage, and the nature of her cargo. If in consequence of the negligence of the captain this last formality shall not have been accomplished within the forty-eight hours following the arrival of the ship, the captain shall be liable to a fine of fifty dollars for each day of such delay, such fine to go to the Custom-house, but the whole amount of such penalty shall uct exceed two hundred dollars.
Immediately after receipt of the note from the Consulate, the Chief of Customs shall give a permit to open the hold. If the captain, before having received such permit, shall have opened the hold and commenced to discharge he may be condemned in a penalty not exceeding five hundred dollars and the merchandise so discharged may be confiscated, the whole to the profit of the Custom-house.
The arms and munitions of war which merchant vessels may have on board for their own security shall be enumerated on the ship's papers and declared at the same time as the description of the cargo.
If the officers of the Annamese Government deem it necessary, these arms shall be placed in a depôt on shore in the hands of the Captain of the Port and the Consul, or in the frontier post, to be returned only on the departure of the vessel, either for the high sea or the Chinese territory. In the latter case the quantity of arms and munitions to be carried shall be determined by the Consul and the Chief of Customs according to circumstances. Contraventions shall be punished by the confiscation of the arms to the profit of the Annamese Government and also a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.
If a vessel have clandestinely discharged arms or munitions on Aunamese territory, these arms, if they are in small number, shall be confiscated and the offenders sball in addition be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, but if the quantity of arms or munitions so discharged be considerable and constitute a danger, the vessel may be seized and confiscated, as well as the whole or part of the cargo.
The confiscation of a European or American vessel shall be decreed only by the two governments.
Art. XVI.-Captains aud foreign merchants may hire such boats or lighters as they wish for conveyance of merchandise and passengers, the amount to be paid for them being arranged between themselves by the parties interested, without the inter- vention of the Annamese authorities and consequently without their guarantee in case of accident, fraud, or the disappearance of such boats. The number shall not be limited and the monopoly shall not be conceded to any one; neither shall there be a monopoly of the conveyance of merchandise by street porters.
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Art. XVII-A foreign merchan having goods to load or discharge shall first send a detailed uote of them to the Consul or Consular Agent, who will communicate it to the Chief of Customs. The latter shall at once give a permit to load or discharge. He will then proceed to the verification of the goods in the form most convenient to prevent loss to any of the parties.
The merchant must cause himself to be represented at the place of verification (if he does not attend himself), by a person possessing the requisite qualifications,
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