Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 128

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TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND CHINA

the Chinese language and any other language or dialect used in the empire, as also to secure their aid in scientific or literary works. Equally they may teach to Chinese subjects their own, or foreign languages and sell without obstacle French books or themselves purchase Chinese books of all descriptions.

Art. XII. Property of any kind appertaining to French subjects in the Chinese empire shall be considered by the Chinese inviolable and shall always be respected by them. The Chinese authorities shall not, under any circumstances whatever, place French vessels under embargo nor put them under requisition for any service, be it public or private.

Art. XIII. The Christian religion having for its essential object the leading of men to virtue, the members of all Christian communities shall enjoy entire security for their persons and property and the free exercise of their religion, and efficient protection shall be given the missionaries who travel peaceably in the interior furnished with passports as provided for in Article VIII.

No hindrance shall be offered by the authorities of the Chinese Empire to the recognised right of every individual in China to embrace, if he so pleases, Chris- tianity, and to follow its practices without being liable to any punishment therefor.

All that has previously been written, proclaimed, or published in China by order of the Government against the Christian religion is completely abrogated and remains null and void in all provinces of the empire.

Art. XIV.--No privileged commercial society shall henceforward be established in China, and the same shall apply to any organised coalition having for its end the exercise of a monopoly of trade. In case of the contravention of the present article the Chinese Authorities, on the representations of the Consul or Consular Agent, shall advise as to the means of dissolving such associations, of which they are also bound to prevent the existence by the preceding prohibitions, so as to remove all that may stand in the way of free competition.

Art. XV.--When a French vessel arrives in the waters of one of the ports open to foreign trade she shall be at liberty to engage any pilot to take her immediately into the port, and, in the same manner, when, having discharged all legal charges she shall be ready to put to sea, she shall not be refused pilots to enable her to leave the port without hindrance or delay.

Any individual who wishes to exercise the profession of pilot for French vessels may, on the presentation of three certificates from captains of ships, be commissioned by the French Consul in the same manner as shall be in use with other nations.

The remuneration payable to pilots shall be equitably regulated for each parti- cular port by the Consul or Consular Agent, who shall fix it, having regard to the distance and circumstances of the navigation.

Art. XVI.--After the pilot has brought a French trading ship into the port, the Superintendent of Customs shall depute one or two officers to guard the ship and prevent fraud. These officers may, according to their convenience, remain in their own boat or stay on board the ship.

Their pay, food, and expenses shall be a charge on the Chinese Customs, and they shall not demand any fee or remuneration whatever from the captain or consignee. Every contravention of this provision shall entail a punishment proportionate to the amount exacted, which also shall be returned in full.

Art. XVII. Within the twenty-four hours following the arrival of a French merchant vessel in one of the ports open to foreign trade, the captain, if he be not unavoidably prevented, and in his default the supercargo or consignee, shall report at the French Consulate and place in the hands of the Consul the ship's papers, the bills of lading, and the manifest. Within the twenty-four hours next following the Consul shall send to the Superintendent of Customs a detailed note indicating the name of the vessel, the articles, the tonnage, and the nature of the cargo; if, in consequence of the negligence of the captain this cannot be accomplished within the forty-eight hours following the arrival of the vessel, the captain shall be liable to a penalty of 50 Dollars for each day's delay, to the profit of the Chinese Government, but the said penalty shall in no case exceed the sum of 200 Dollars.