66266-1920-The-Treaty-of-Peace-Order-1919 — Page 9

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, JANUARY 9, 1920.

22. Subject to any special agreement to the contrary between the Governments concerned, debts shall carry interest in accordance with the following provisions:--

Interest shall not be payable on sums of money due by way of dividend, interest, or other periodical payments which themselves represent interest on capital.

The rate of interest shall be 5 per cent. per annum except in cases where, by contract, law, or custom, the creditor is entitled to payment of interest at a different rate. In such cases the rate to which he is entitled shall prevail.

Interest shall run from the date of commencement of hostilities (or, if the sum of money to be recovered fell due during the war, from the date at which it fell due) until the sum is credited to the clearing office of the creditor.

Sums due by way of interest shall be treated as debts admitted by the clearing offices and shall be credited to the Creditor Clearing Office in the same way as such debts.

23. Where by decision of the clearing offices or the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal a claim

is held not to fall within Article 296, the creditor shall be at liberty to prosecute the claim before the Courts or to take such other proceedings as may be open to him.

The presentation of a claim to the clearing office suspends the operation of any period of prescription.

24. The High Contracting Parties agree to regard the decisions of the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal as final and conclusive, and to render them binding upon their nationals.

25. In any case where a Creditor Clearing Office declines to notify a claim to the Debtor Clearing Office, or to take any step provided for in this Annex, intended to make effective in whole or in part a request of which it has received due notice, the enemy creditor shall be entitled to receive from the clearing office a certificate setting out the amount of the claim, and shall then be entitled to prosecute the claim before the Courts or to take such other proceedings as may be open to him.

SECTION IV. PROPERTY, RIGHTS AND INTERESTS.

ARTICLE 297.

The question of private property, rights and interests in an enemy country shall be settled according to the principles laid down in this Section and to the provisions of the Annex hereto :-

(a) The exceptional war measures and measures of transfer (defined in paragraph 3 of the Annex héreto) taken by Germany with respect to the property, rights and interests of nationals of Allied or Associated Powers, including companies and associations in which they are interested, when liquidation has not been. completed, shall be immediately discontinued or stayed and the property, rights, and interests concerned restored to their owners, who shall enjoy full rights therein in accordance with the provisions of Article 298.

(b) Subject to any contrary stipulations which may be provided for in the present Treaty, the Allied and Associated Powers reserve the right to retain and liquidate all property, rights, and interests belonging at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty to German nationals, or companies controlled by them, within their territories, colonies, possessions and protectorates, in- cluding territories ceded to them by the present Treaty.

The liquidation shall be carried out in accordance with the laws of the Allied or Associated State concerned, and the German owner shall not be able to dispose of such property, rights, or interests nor to subject them to any charge without the consent of that State.

German nationals who acquire ipso facto the nationality of an Allied or Associated Power in accordance with the provisions of the present Treaty will not be considered as German nationals within the meaning of this paragraph. (c) The price or the amount of compensation in respect of the exercise of the right referred to in the preceding paragraph (b) will be fixed in accordance with the methods of sale or valuation adopted by the laws of the country in which the property has been retained or liquidated.