Directory_and_Chronicle_1900 — Page 111

TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND CHINA

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scales for goods and silver, the weights and measures agreeing exactly with the weights and measures in use at the Canton Custom-house, and bearing a stamp and seal certifying this authority. These scales shall be the base of all liquidations of duties and of all payments to be made to the Chinese Government. They shall be referred to in case of dispute as to the weights and measures of goods, and the decree shall be according to the results they show.

Art. XXVII-Import and export duties levied in China on French commerce shall be regulated according to the tariff annexed to the present treaty under the seal and signature of the respective plenipotentiaries. This tariff may be revised. every seven years in order to be in harmony with the changes brought about by time in the value of the products of the soil or industry of the two empires.

By the payment of these duties, the amount of which it is expressly provided shall not be increased nor augmented by any kind of charge or surtax whatever, French subjects shall be free to import into China, from French or foreign ports, and equally to export from China, to any destination, all goods which shall not be, at the date of the signing of the present treaty and according to the classification of the annexed tariff, the object of a special prohibition or of a special monopoly. The Chinese Government renouncing therefore the right of augmenting the number of articles reputed contraband or subjects of a monopoly, any modification of the tariff shall be made only after an understanding has been come to with the French Government and with it- full and entire consent.

With regard to the tariff, as well as every stipulation introduced or to be in- troduced in the existing treaties, or those which may hereafter he concluded, it remains well and duly established that merchants and in general all French subjects in China shall always have the same rights and be treated in the same way as the most favoured nation.

Art. XXVIII.---The publication of the regular tariff doing away henceforth with all pretext for smuggling, it is not to be presumed that any act of this nature may be committed by French vessels in the ports of China. If it should be otherwise, all contraband goods introduced into these ports by French vessels or merchants whatever their value or nature, as also all prohibited goods fraudulently discharged, shall be seized by the local authority and confiscated to the profit of the Chinese Government. Further, the latter may, if it see fit, interdict the re-entry to China of the vessel taken in contravention and compel it to leave immediately after the settle- ment of its accounts.

If any foreign vessel fraudulently makes use of the French flag the French Government shall take the necessary measures for the repression of this abuse.

Art. XXIX. His Majesty the Emperor of the French may station a vessel of war in any principal port of the empire where its presence may be considered necessary to maintain good order and discipline amongst the crews of merchant vessels and to facilitate the exercise of the Consular authority; all necessary measures shall be taken to provide that the presence of these vessels of war shall entail no inconvenience, and their commanders shall receive orders to cause to be executed the provisions of Article XXXIII. in respect of the communications with the land and the policing of the crews. Vessels of war shall be subject to no duty.

Art. XXX.-Every French vessel of war cruising for the protection of commerce shall be received as a friend and treated as such in all the ports of China which it shall enter. These ves els may there procure the divers articles of refitting and victualling of which they shall have need, and, if they have suffered damage, may repair there and purchase the materials necessary for such repair, the whole without the least opposition.

The same shall apply to French trading ships which in consequence of great damage or any other reason may be compelled to seek refuge in any port whatsoever

of China.

If a vessel be wrecked on the coast of China, the nearest Chinese authority, on being informed of the occurrence, shall immediately send assistance to the crew; provide for their present necessities, and take the measures immediately necessary