Directory_and_Chronicle_1917 — Page 112

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THE BRITISH COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH CHINA

Should any vessel specially chartered to load rice or grain previously contracted for have arrived at ber loading port prior to or on the day when a notice of prohibition to export comes into force, she shall be allowed an extra week in which to ship her

cargo.

If during the existence of this prohibition, any shipment of rice or grain is allowed by the authorities, the prohibition shall, ipso facto, be considered cancelled and shall not be re-imposed until six weeks' notice has been given.

When a prohibition is notified, it will be stated whether the Government have any Tribute or Army Rice which they intend to ship during the time of prohibition, and, if so, the quantity shall be named.

Such rice shall not be included in the prohibition, and the Customs shall keep a record of any Tribute or Army Rice so shipped or landed.

The Chinese Government undertake that no rice, other than Tribute or Army Rice belonging to the Government, shall be shipped during the period of prohibitiou. Notifications of prohibitions, and of the quantities of Army or Tribute Rice for shipment shall be made by the Governors of the Province concerned.

Similarly, notifications of the removals of prohibitions shall be made by the same authorities.

The export of rice and other grain to foreign countries remains prohibited.

Art. XV.-It is agreed that either of the High Contracting Parties to this Treaty may demand a revision of the Tariff at the end of 10 years; but if no demand be made on either side within 6 months after the end of the first 10 years, then the Tariff shall remain in force for 10 years more, reckoned from the end of the preceding 10 years, and so it shall be at the end of each successive 10 years.

Any Tariff concession which China may hereafter accord to articles of the produce or manufacture of any other State shall immediately be extended to similar articles of the produce or manufacture of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions by whomsoever imported.

Treaties already existing between the United Kingdom and China shall continue in force in so far as they are not abrogated or modified by stipulations of the present Treaty.

Art. XVI.-The English and Chinese Texts of the present Treaty have been care- fully compared, but in the event of there being any difference of meaning between them, the sense as expressed in the English text shall be held to be the correct sense.

The ratifications of this Treaty, under the hand of His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland and of His Majesty the Emperor of China respectively shall be exchanged at Peking within a year from this day of signature.

In token whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed and sealed this Treaty, two copies in English and two in Chinese.

Done at Shanghai this fifth day of September in the year of Our Lord, 1902, corresponding with the Chinese date, the fourth day of the eighth moon of the twenty- eighth year of Kwang Hsu.

[L.S.]

JAS. L. MACKAY.

ANNEX A.-(1)

(TRANSLATION.)

Lu, President of the Board of Works ;

SHENG, Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, Vice-President of the Board of Works;

Imperial Chinese Commissioners for dealing with questions connected with the Commercial Treaties, to

Sir JAMES MACKAY, His Britannic Majesty's Special Commissioner for the dis- cussion of Treaty matters.