Directory_and_Chronicle_1891 — Page 274

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TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND CHINA.

Art. II.—China, being resolved to do nothing which may imperil the work of pacification undertaken by France, engages to respect, both in the present and in the future, the treaties, conventions, and arrangements concluded directly between France and Annam, or which may hereafter be concluded.

As regards the relations between China and Annam, it is understood they shall be of such a nature as shall in no way injure the dignity of the Chinese empire or give rise to any violation of the present treaty.

Art. III. Within a period of six months from the signature of the present treaty commissioners appointed by the high contracting parties shall proceed to the spot in order to define the frontier between China and Tonquin. They shall place landmarks wherever necessary to render the line of demarcation clear. In those cases where they may not be able to agree as to the location of these landmarks or on such rectifications of detail as it may be desirable to make, in the interest of the two nations, in the existing frontier of Tonquin, they shall refer the difficulty to their respective Governments.

Art. IV. When the frontier shall have been agreed upon, French or French protégés and foreign residents of Tonquin who may wish to cross it in order to enter China shall not be allowed to do so unless they shall have previously provided them- selves with passports issued by the Chinese frontier authorities on the requisition of the French authorities. For Chinese subjects an authorisation given by the Imperial frontier authorities shall be sufficient.

Chinese subjects wishing to proceed from China to Tonquin by the land route shall be obliged to provide themselves with regular passports, issued by the French authorities on the requisition of the Imperial authorities.

Art. V.-Import and export trade shall be permitted to French or French- protected traders and to Chinese traders across the land frontier between China and Tonquin. It shall, however, be carried on through certain spots which shall be settled later, and both the selection and number of which shall correspond with the direction and importance of the traffic between the two countries. In this respect the Regulations in force in the interior of the Chinese Empire shall be taken into

account.

In any case, two of the said spots shall be marked out on the Chinese frontier, the one above Lao-kai, the other beyond Lang-son. French traders shall be at liberty to settle there under the same conditions, and with the same advantages, as in the ports open to foreign trade. The Government of His Majesty the Emperor of China shall establish custom-houses there, and the Government of the French Republic shall be at liberty to maintain Consuls there, whose powers and privileges shall be identical with those of Agents of the same rank in the open ports.

On his part, His Majesty the Emperor of China shall be at liberty, with the concurrence of the French Government, to appoint Consuls in the principal towns of Tonquin.

Art. VI.-A special code of Regulations, annexed to the present Treaty, shall define the conditions under which trade shall be carried on by land between Tonquin and the Chinese provinces of Yunnan, of Kwang-si, and of Kwang-tung. Such Regulations shall be drawn up by Commissioners, who shall be appointed by the High Contracting Parties, within three months from the signature of the present Treaty.

All goods dealt with by such trade shall be subject, on import and export between Tonquin and the provinces of Yünnan and Kwang-si, to duties lower than those laid down by the present Tariff for foreign trade. The reduced Tariff shall not, however, be applied to goods transported by way of the land frontier between Tonquin and Kwang-tung, and shall not be enforced within the ports already open by Treaty.

Trade in arms, engines, supplies, and munitions of war of any kind whatsoever shall be subject to the Laws and Regulations issued by each of the Contracting States within its own territory.