Directory_and_Chronicle_1900 — Page 146

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TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA

Art. XIII.-In the places where the Russian Government will have the right to establish consulates, as well as in the town of Kalgan, Russian subjects may construct houses, shops, warehouses, and other buildings, on the lands which they will acquire by means of purchase, or which may be conceded to them by the local authorities, conformably to that which has been established for Ili and Tarbagatai, by Article XIII. of the Treaty of Kuldja of 1851.

The privileges granted to Russian subjects, in the town of Kalgan, where there will not be a consulate, constitute an exception which cannot be extended to any other locality of the interior provinces.

Art. XIV.-Russian merchants who may wish to dispatch merchandise from Russia, by land, into the interior provinces of China, can, as formerly, direct it by the towns of Kalgan and Tungchow, to the port of Tientsin, and from there, to the other ports and interior markets, and sell it in those different places.

Merchants will use this same route to export to Russia the merchandise purchased, as well in the towns and ports above named as in the interior markets.

They will equally have the right to repair, for matters of trade, to Soutcheou (Tsia-yu-kwan), the terminal point of the Russian caravans, and they will enjoy there all the rights granted to Russian trade at Tientsin.

Art. XV.-Trade by land, exercised by Russian subjects in the interior and exterior provinces of China, will be governed by the Regulations annexed to the present Treaty.

The commercial stipulations of the present Treaty, as well as the Regulations which serve as a supplement to it, can be revised after an interval of ten years has elapsed from the date of the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty; but if, in the course of six months before the expiration of this term, neither of the contracting parties manifest a desire to proceed to the revision, the trade stipulations as well as the Regulations will remain in force for a new term of ten years.

Trade by sea route of Russian subjects in China will be subject to the general regulations established for foreign maritime commerce in China. If it becomes necessary to make modifications in these regulations, the two Governments will establish an understanding on this subject.

Art. XVI.-If the development of Russian overland trade provokes the necessity of the establishment, for goods of export and import in China, of a Customs tariff, more in relation than the tariffs actually in force, to the necessities of that trade, the Russian and Chinese Governments will proceed to an understanding on this subject, by adopting as a base for settling the duties of entry and exit the rate of five per cent. of the value of the goods.

Until the establishment of this tariff, the export duties on some kinds of teas of inferior quality, actually imposed at the rates established for the tea of superior qualily, will be diminished proportionately to their value. The settling of these duties will be proceeded with, for each kind of tea, by an understanding between the Chinese Government and the envoy of Russia to Peking, within the term of one year, at the latest, from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of the present Treaty. Art. XVII. Some divergencies of opinion having arisen hitherto as to the application of Article X. of the treaty concluded at Peking, in 1860, it is established by these presents, that the stipulations of the above-named article, relative to the recoveries to be effected, in case of theft and the harbouring of cattle beyond the frontier, will be for the future interpreted in this sense, that at the time of the discovery of the individuals guilty of theft or the harbouring of cattle, they will be condemned to pay the real value of the cattle which ther have not restored. It is understood that in case of the insolvency of the individuals guilty of theft of cattle, the indemnity to be paid cannot be placed to the charge of the local authorities.

The frontier authorities of the two States will prosecute, with all the rigour of the laws of their country, the individuals guilty of the harbouring of or theft of cattle, and should take the measures in their power for the restitution to whom they belong of cattle diverted, or which may have passed the frontier.