250
CONVENTION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA.
route; and as regards parcels, there shall never be more than twenty packages for- warded at a time, and no single package shall exceed 120 catties in weight. Letters shall not not be delayed, but shall be forwarded on the day they are handed in for despatch. In the event of any delay or neglect the culpable parties shall be visited with severe punishment.
Couriers in charge of letters or parcels between Kiachta and Peking shall call at the Koo-lun Consulate, and deliver to the Consul all letters or parcels to his address, and they shall likewise take charge of whatever despatches or parcels the Consul may hand to them.
Whenever parcels are despatched from Kiachta or Koo-lun, the High Officer at Koo-lun must be supplied with a list of the same; in like manner, when despatching parcels from Peking, the Foreign Office shall be supplied with a list. Such list shall specify the number and weights of the packages, as also the date of their being despatched; and on the outside of each package shall be written, in Russian and Manchurian or Chinese characters, its weight, &c.
Merchants forwarding letters and parcels for purposes of trade, if willing to hire porters themselves and to make other arrangements, shall be at liberty to do so, having obtained permission, after the report of the circumstances, from the local authorities, to obviate the [undue] incurring of expense by the Government.
Art. XIII.-Official communications passing between the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Privy Council, or between the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia and the Privy Council or Foreign Office, shall be forwarded by the regular post, and shall be under no restrictions in respect of time; and should any delay or detention be apprehended, in cases of importance, trustworthy Russian Officers may be charged with the speedy conveyance of such despatches.
While resident at Peking despatches on important business, for or from the Russian Minister, may be transmitted by officers appointed by the Russian Govern- ment. Officers conveying such despatches shall not at any place be delayed or detained, and in every instance, such bearers of despatches shall be Russians.
As regards the movements of such despatch-bearers, if travelling from Kiachta to Peking, the Governor shall notify the officer of the Board on the day preceding their departure. In like manner, if starting from Peking, a day's notice shall be given to the Board of War.
Art. XIV. Should any of the arrangements in respect of land commerce here- after prove inconvenient to both parties, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia and the Chinese High Officers of the Frontier shall consult together, and determine the matter in accordance with the articles of this Convention; but new demands must. not be preferred. There shall be no further departure from the provisions of the twelfth article of the Tientsin Treaty.
Art. XV.-On the termination of the present conference, the Chinese Minister Plenipotentiary shall translate the original text of this convention into the Chinese language, and shall furnish the Russian Minister Plenipotentiary with a copy of the Chinese translation, duly authenticated by signature and seal, who, on his side, shall likewise translate into Chinese the original text of the convention, and shall supply the Chinese Minister Plenipotentiary with a copy of the same, in the manner duly authenticated by seal and signature.
The articles of the present convention, without waiting for the ratification of the same by their Imp rial Majesties the Emperors of the two countries, shall be in force, and for ever observed, from the day on which the translations into Chinese of the original text shall have been interchanged by the Minister Plenipotentiary, who shall each forthwith issue whatever commands may be necessary for the carrying into effect of the provisions of the convention.
Signed and sealed on the 2nd day of the 10th moon of the 10th year of Hien Fung, i.e. the 2nd of November in the Christian year 1860 [14th November, 1860, Russian style].
[L.S.] [L.B.]
PRINCE OF KUNG.
NICHOLAS IGNATIEFF.
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