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COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND ANNAM.
who shall deliver for this part of the cargo, without delay or cost, a permit to dis- charge it free of dues; but if the authorities discover fraud or contraband articles among the goods thus re-exported, these shall be, after verification, confiscated to the profit of the Custom-house.
Art. XXII.-No transhipment of goods can take place except under special permit and in case of urgency. If the operation be indispensable it must be referred to the Consul, who will deliver a certificate, on view of which the transhipment will be authorised by the Chief of Customs. The latter may always delegate an employé of his administration to assist in it.
Every unauthorised transhipment, except in cases where there may be peril in delay, shall entail the confiscation to the profit of the Custom-house of the whole of the goods illicitly transhipped.
Art. XXIII.-In each of the ports open to foreign trade the Chief of the Customs shall receive for himself and shall deposit at the French Consulate legal balances for goods and for money, in order that the weights and measures may exactly conform to the weights and measures in use in Annam, and they shall bear a stamp and seal attesting this conformity. These standards shall be the base of all liquidations of dues and payments to be made. They shall be referred to in case of dispute as to the weights or measure of goods, and the dispute shall be sttled according to the results which they show.
Art. XXIV.—All merchandise imported or exported in a contraband manner by foreign ships or merchants, whatso ver may be their value and nature, as also every prohibited commodity fraudulently discharged, shall be seized by the local authority and confiscate 1. The Annamese Government may also, if it thinks proper, interdict the vessel taken in contravention of this from entering its poris ad compel it to leave immediately after settlement of its accounts. If any foreign vessel shall fraudulently sail under a flag to which it is not entitled the French authorities shall take the necessary measures for the repression of this abuse.
The total proceeds of the sale of confiscated articles shall go to the Custom- house. The results of fines for contravention of the Customs regulations in the open ports shall also go to the Custom-house.
Art. XXV. His Excel ency the President of the French Republic may station a ship of war in the open ports of the Empire where its presence may be judged necessary to maintain good or ler and discipline among the crews of merchant vessels and to facilitate the exercise of the Consular authority. All necessary inea-ures shall be taken in order that the presence of these ships of war may not entail any incon- venience. Ships of war shall not be subject to any dues.
Art. XXVI.-Every French ship of war cruising for the protection of trade shall be received and treatel as a friend in all the ports of Annam where it may present itself. These ships my procure there the divers objects of refitin nt and revictualling which they may need, and if they have met with da nago may repair, and to this end purchase the necessary materials, the whole without the last opposi- tion.
The same shall apply to trading vessels, French or forein, which, in consequence of serious damages or for other cause, are compelled to se k refuge in a y port of Annam. But these vessels shall remain only te nporarily, and as soon as the cause of their distress shall have ceased, they shall set sail and shall not b-allowed to pro- long their stay nor to tra·le.
If a vessel be wrecked upon the cast, the nearest authority, upon receiving in. formation, shall at once send assistance to the crew, provide for their im nediate wants, and take the necessary measures for the salvage of the vessel and the preservation of the merchandise. He shall then acquaint the nearest Ćɔusul or Consular Agent with the disaster, in order that the latter, in concert with the competent authorities, may arrange means for assisting the crew and saving the remains of the mugo.
The port of Thuan-an, or account of its situation on a river leading to the capital and its proximity to the capital, shall be an exception, and no foreign ship-of-war or trading vessel may enter it
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