Directory_and_Chronicle_1888 — Page 1151

ADDITIONAL CONVENTION BETWEEN FRANCE AND CHINA.

SIGNED AT PEKING, 26TH JUNE, 1887.

Translated from the Chinese Text.

The President of the French Republic and His Majesty the Emperor of China, being desirous of promoting the development of the commercial relations between the two countries and of assuring the thorough execution of the Treaty of Commerce signed at Tientsin the 25th April, 1886, have decided to conclude an Ådditional Con- vention modifying some of the stipulations contained in the said instrument. To this end the two high contracting parties have named as their respective plenipo- tentiaries: The President of the French Republic M. Constans, Deputy, former Minister of the Interior and of Worship, Commissioner of the Government, Envoy Extraordinary of the French Republic in China; and His Majesty the Emperor of China, His Highness Prince Ch'ing, Prince of the Second Rank, President of the Tsung-li Yamen, assisted by His Excellency Sun Yü-wên, Member of the Tsung-li Yamên, First vice-President of the Board of Works; who, after having mutually communicated their full powers, and finding the same in good and proper form, have agreed upon the following articles:-

Art. I.-The treaty sigued at Tientsin on the 25th April, 1886, shall be, im- mediately after the exchange of ratifications, faithfully put into execution in all its clauses, excepting those which the present convention is intended to modify.

Art. II. In the execution of Article I. of the treaty of 25th April, 1886, it is agreed between the two contracting parties that the town of Lung Chou in Kwangsi, and that of Mêng Tzu in Yunnan are open to Franco-Annamite commerce. It is understood, moreover, that Mang Hao, which is on the waterway between Pao Shêng and Mêng Tzu, is open to trade like Lung Chou and Mêng Tzu, and that the French Government shall have the right to keep an agent there to take the place of the consul of this latter town.

Art. III.—With a view to developing as rapidly as possible the commerce be- tween China and Tonquin, the rights of importation and exportation, stipulated in Articles VI. and VII. of the treaty of the 25th April, 1886, are provisionally modified as follows:-Foreign merchandise imported into China by the open ports shall pay the duty according to the general tariff of the Maritime Customs reduced by three-tenths. Chinese merchandise exported to Tonquin will pay export duty according to the said general tariff reduced by four-tenths.

Art. IV. Produce of Chinese origin which shall have paid import duty according to paragraph 1. of April XI. of the treaty of the 25th April, 1886, and shall be trans- ported through Tonquin to an Annamite port, shall on leaving this port, if destined for another country than China, be subjected to the export duty as fixed by the Franco-Annamite tariff.

Art. V. The Chinese Government authorizes the exportation of indigenous opium in Tonquin by the border routes, paying an export duty of twenty taels per picul, or one hundred Chinese pounds. French merchants and French protégés will only be entitled to buy opium in Lung Chou, Meng Tzu, and Mang Hao. The likin and barrier dues that the native traders will have to pay on this produce will not exceed twenty taels per picul. The Chinese traders who shall have brought opium from the interior will deliver to the buyer, together with the goods, the receipts cer- tifying that the likin has been entirely cleared, and the buyer, at the time of paying the export duties, will present these receipts to the Customs, who will cancel them. It is understood that this opium, in the case of its returning into China, either by the frontier route, or by one of the open sea ports, cannot be classed as re-imported produce of Chinese origin.