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GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE

DECLARATION

SIGNED BY GREAT

BRITAIN

AND

FRANCE RESPECTING SPHERES OF INFLUENCE

SIGNED AT LONDON, 15TH JANUARY, 1896

The undersigned, duly authorised by their respective Governments, have signed the following Declaration :-

I. The Governments of Great Britain and France engage to one another that neither of them will, without the consent of the other, in any case, or under any pretext, advance their armed forces into the region which is comprised in the basins of the Petcha Bouri, Meiklong, Menam, and Bang Pa Kong (Petriou) rivers and their respective tributaries, together with the extent of coast from Muong Bang Tapan to Muong Pase, the basins of the rivers on which those two places are situated, and the basins of the other rivers, the estuaries of which are included in that coast; and including also the territory lying to the north of the basin of the Menam and situated between the Anglo-Siamese frontier, the Mekong River, and the Eastern watershed of the Me Ing. They further engage not to acquire within this region any special privilege or advantage which shall not be enjoyed in common by, or equally open to, Great Britain and France and their nationals and dependents. These stipulations, however, shall not be interpreted as derogating from the special clauses which, in virtue of the Treaty concluded on Oct. 3, 1893, between France and Siam, apply to a zone of 25 kilom. on the right bank of the Mekong and to the navigation of that river.

II.-Nothing in the foregoing clause shall hinder any action on which the two Powers may agree and which they shall think necessary in order to uphold the independence of the Kingdom of Siam. But they engage not to enter into any separate agreement permitting a third Power to take any action from which they are bound by the present declaration themselves to abstain.

III. From the mouth of the Nam Huok northwards as far as the Chinese frontier the thalweg of the Mekong shall form the limit of the possessions or spheres of influence of Great Britain and France. It is agreed that the nationals and dependents of each of the two countries shall not exercise any jurisdiction or authority within the possessions or sphere of influence of the other.

The police of the islands in this part of the river, which are separated from the British shore by a branch of the river, shall, so long as they are thus separated, be entrusted to the French authorities. The fishery shall be open to the inhabitants of both banks.

IV. The two Governments agree that all commercial and other privileges and advantages conceded in the two Chinese provinces of Yuunan and Szechuen either to Great Britain or France, in virtue of their respective Conventions with China of March 1, 1894, and June 20, 1895, and all privileges and advantages of any nature which may in the future be conceded in these two Chinese provinces, either to Great Britain or France, shall, as far as rests with them, be extended and rendered common to both Powers and to their nationals and dependents, and they engage to use their influence and good offices with the Chinese Government for this purpose.