Directory_and_Chronicle_1909 — Page 178

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TRADE REGULATIONS FOR THE TONKIN FRONTIER

Art. III.—It is agreed, on the one side and the other, that in the places where Consuls are appointed the respective authorities will facilitate the installation of these agents in suitable residences.

Frenchmen may establish themselves in the places opened to trade on the frontier of China under the conditions set forth in the Articles VII., X., XI., XII., and others of the Treaty of the 27th June, 1858.

Annamites shall enjoy in these places the same privileged treatment.

Art. IV. Chinese shall have the right of possessing land, erecting buildings, opening commercial houses, and having warehouses throughout Annam.

They shall receive for their persons, their families, and their goods the same protection as the most favoured European nation, and, like the latter, may not be made the object of any ill-treatment. The official and private correspondence and telegrams of Chinese officials and merchants shall be freely transmitted through the French postal and telegraphic administrations.

Frenchmen will receive from China the same privileged treatment.

Art. V.-Frenchmen, French protégés, and foreigners residing in Tonkin may cross the frontiers and enter China on condition of being furnished with passports. These passports will be given by the Chinese authorities at the frontier, on the requisition of the French authorities, who will ask for them only for respectable persons; they will be surrendered to be cancelled on the holder's return.

In the case

of those who have to pass any place occupied by aborigines or savages, it will be mentioned in the passport that there are no Chinese officials there who can protect them.

Chinese who wish to come from China to Tonkin by land must in the same way be furnished with passports granted by the French authorities on the requisition of the Chinese authorities, who will ask for them only on behalf of respectable

persons.

The passports so granted on the one side or the other shall serve only as titles to travel and shall not be considered as certificates of exemption from taxes for the transport of merchandise.

Chinese authorities on Chinese soil and French authorities in Tonkin shall have the right to arrest persons who have crossed the frontier without passports and send them back to their respective authorities to be tried and punished if necessary.

Chinese residing in Aunam may return from Tonkin to China on simply obtaining from the Imperial authorities a pass permitting them to cross the frontier.

Frenchmen and other persons established in the open places on the frontier may travel without passports to a distance of 50 li (578 metres to the li) around such places.

Art. VI.-Merchandise imported into the places opened to trade on the frontier of China by French merchants and French protégés may, after payment of the import duties, be conveyed to the interior markets of China under the conditions fixed by Rule VII. annexed to the Treaty of the 27th June, 1858, and by the general rules of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs with regard to import transit passes.

When foreign merchandise is imported into these places a declaration shall be made at the Custom House of the nature and quantity of the merchandise, as well as of the name of the person by whom it is accompanied. The Customs authorities will proceed to verification, and will collect the duty according to the general tariff of the Imperial Maritime Customs, diminished by one-fifth. Articles not mentioned in the tariff will remain subject to the duty of 5 per cent. ad valorem. Until this duty has been paid the goods may not be taken out of the warehouses to be sent away and sold.

A merchant wishing to send foreign merchandise into the interior shall make a fresh declaration at the Custom House, and pay, without reduction, the transit dues fixed by the general rules of the Chinese Maritime Customs.

After this payment the Customs will deliver a transit pass which will enable the carriers to go to the localities mentioned in the pass for the purpose of disposing of the said merchandise.