Directory_and_Chronicle_1891 — Page 345

TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND COREA.

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certificate shewing that the goods have arrived at the port of destination, or on satisfactory proof being produced of the loss of the goods by shipwreck.

4.-All goods imported into Corea by British subjects, and on which the duty of the Tariff annexed to this Treaty shall have been paid, may be conveyed to any Corean open port free of duty, and, when transported into the interior, shall not be subject to any additional tax, excise or trans day whatsoever in any part of the country. In like manner, full freedom shall be as well for the transport to the open ports of all Corean commodities intended for extortation, and such commodities shall not, either at the place of production, or when being conveyed from any part of Corea to any of the open ports, be subject to the payment of any tax, excise or transit duty whatsoever.

5. The Corean Government may charter British merchant vessels for the con- veyance of goods or passengers to unopened ports in Corea, and Corean subjects shall have the same right, subject to the approval of their own authorities.

6.Whenever the Government of Corea shall have reason to apprehend a scarcity of food within the kingdom, His Majesty the King of Corea may, by Decree, temporarily prohibit the export of grain to foreign countries from any or all of the Corean open ports, and such prohibition shall become binding on British subjects in Corea on the expiration of one month from the date on which it shall have been officially communicated by the Coreau Authorities to the British Consul at the port concerned, but shall not remain longer in force than is absolutely necessary.

7.-All British ships shall pay tonnage dues at the rate of thirty cents (Mexican) per register ton. One such payment will entitle a vessel to visit any or all of the open ports in Corea during a period of four months without further charge. All tonnage dues shall be appropriated for the purposes of erecting lighthouses and beacons, and placing buoys on the Corean coast, more especially at the approaches to the open ports, and in deepening or otherwise improving the anchorages. No tonnage dues shall be charged on boats employed at the open ports in landing or shipping cargo.

8.-In order to carry into effect and secure the observance of the provisions of this Treaty, it is hereby agreed that the Tariff and Trade Regulations hereto annexed shall come into operation simultaneously with this Treaty. The competent authorities of the two countries may, from time to time, revise the said Regulations with a view to the insertion therein, by mutual consent, of such modifications or additions as experience shall prove to be expedient.

Art. VI.-Any British subject who smuggles, or attempts to smuggle, goods into any Corean port or place not open to foreign trade shall forfeit twice the value of such goods, and the goods shall be confiscated. The Corean local authorities may seize such goods, and may arrest any British subject concerned in such smuggling or attempt to smuggle. They shall immediately forward any person so arrested to the nearest British Consul for trial by the proper British judicial authority, and may detain such goods until the case shall have been finally adjudicated.

Art. VII.-If a British ship be wrecked or stranded on the coast of Corea, the local authorities shall immediately take such steps to protect the ship and her cargo from plunder, and all the persons belonging to her from ill-treatment, and to render such other assistance as may be required. They shall at once inform the nearest British Consul of the occurrence, and shall furnish the shipwrecked persons, if neces- sary, with means of conveyance to the nearest open port.

2.-All expenses incurred by the Government of Corea for the rescue, clothing, maintenance, and travelling of shipwrecked British subjects, for the recovery of the bodies of the drowned, for the medical treatment of the sick and injured, and for the burial of the dead, shall be repaid by the British Government to that of Corea.

3. The British Government shall not be responsible for the repayment of the expenses incurred in the recovery or preservation of a wrecked vessel, or the property belonging to her. All such expenses shall be a charge upon the property saved, and shall be paid by the parties interested therein upon receiving delivery of the same.

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