CONVENTION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA.
249
Matters in which Kiachta is concerned shall be attended to by the Commissioner stationed on the Kiachta frontier, in communication with the officer of the board at Kiachta. 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 despatches written refer to business that ought not to 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 thereon with either the Privy Council or the Foreign Office.
Art. X.-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 of 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 officer 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 posts, who shall be bound to recover and send back such cattle, whether straying or stolen, in accordance with the number 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 manner proportionate to the value of what is lost. 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 requisi- tion shall also be dealt with in like manner.
Art. XI.--Answers shall be returned to communications transmitted through intermediate officers by the High Officials on the frontiers. The despatches of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia and of the Governor of Kiachta shall be handed to the Commissioner of Kiachta for transmission to the officer of the board. The despatches of the High Officer stationed at Koolun shall be handed to the officers of the board for transmission to the Commissioner of Kiachta. The despatches of the Governor 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 Governor of the Tung-hae-peen province and the General stationed at Kee-lin, shall be transmitted through the officers at the frontier posts 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 massengers shall be employed. The Governors-General of Eastern and Western Siberia and the various Governors of Provincial Districts, together with the High Officer at Koo-lun, and the Tartar General stationed at liih-lun-keang, Kee-lin, and Ili, in the transmission of official communications, may entrust them to trustworthy Russian officers.
Art. XII.-As was stipulated for in the cleventh 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
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