tion. If the same resolution is adopted by a majority of three-fourths of the members present, it becomes binding. XV. Important questions concerning the public interest or the municipal finances in the commercial centres upon the lands of the railway shall be submitted, after discussion in the assembly of delegates, to the examination and approval of the president of the company (high Chinese official according to article I of the contract of 1896) conjointly with the principal administration (board of directors) of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company. XVI. The Chinese Eastern Railway Company has the free administration of the lands specially affecting the service of the railway, such as stations, workshops, etc. All the other lands of the railway company, not leased to others, as well as buildings reserved for the exclusive use of this company, if these lands and buildings have not been transferred to the municipalities in accordance with the plans agreed upon, shall be temporarily subject, as heretofore, to the administration of the said company. The lands in this category shall be provisionally exempt from taxes, etc. XVII. The foregoing general arrangements are to serve as a base for the elaboration of a detailed arrangement concerning the municipalities and the police; likewise the rate of taxation shall be determined. It is agreed to proceed to the elaboration of this arrangement within a month from the date of the signature of the present agreement (11th May, 1909). XVIII. Until the detailed arrangement concerning the municipal organizations have been elaborated and put into effect the municipalities shall conform provisionally to existing regulations, with the application of article XIII of the present agreement relative to the rights of control of the president of the Chiao She Chu and the director of the railway with respect to the municipalities. If the president of the Chiao She Chu and the director of the railway shall not approve the decisions of the assembly of delegates and if, after an exchange of views, an agreement can not be reached by these officials, two special delegates shall be separately elected by the inhabitants, Chinese and foreign. The president of the Chiao She Chu and the director of the railway conjointly with these two delegates shall choose a fifth person, Chinese or foreign, who enjoys the general esteem, in order to form a committee to discuss and arrange the difference by agreement. The chamber of commerce at Harbin is authorized to name three members who shall form part of the executive committee of the city and have the same part in the management of affairs as the other members of the said committee. The chambers of commerce of the communities of Manchuria and Hailar shall each choose two delegates who will form part of the respective committees. In the other commercial centres where there exist only general assemblies, the Chinese and Russian population shall take equal part in the administration of municipal affairs. The elections for the assemblies and committees shall take place in accordance with the new detailed arrangement as soon as the same shall have been elaborated. The text of this arrangement has been rendered in the Chinese, Russian, and French languages and there exist four copies of it in each language. All of these copies have been duly signed and bear the respective seals of the parties interested. In case of disagreement the French text alone shall be authoritative. Done at Peking the 1st year of Hsü T'ung 3rd moon, 21st day (27th April, 1909). (Signed, May 11, 1909). LIANG TUN YEN. (L. s.) J. KOROSTOVETZ. (L. s.) Yu Szu HSING. (L. S.) AGREEMENTS BETWEEN FRANCE AND BELGIUM IN REGARD TO THE CONGO.1 Signed December 23, 1908. I. Arrangement regulating the right of preference of France over the territories of the Congo State. Considering that in virtue of the letters exchanged on April 23 and 24, 1884, between M. Strauch, president of the International Asso 1 See SUPPLEMENT, 3:6, 69, for notes in reference to the preference which France had in the Congo, together with the agreement dated February 5, 1895, which is renewed with modifications by the arrangement printed above. ciation of the Congo, and M. J. Ferry, president of the council and minister of foreign affairs of the French Republic, a right of preference has been assured to France in case the association should be led some day to alienate its possessions; that this right of preference has been maintained since the Congo Free State replaced the International Association; Considering that following the transfer of the possessions of the Congo Free State to Belgium, by virtue of the treaty of cession of November 28, 1907, and the additional act to this treaty, dated March 5, 1908, the Belgian government is substituted in the obligation contracted for in this respect by the government of the aforesaid state, The undersigned have agreed upon the following provisions which shall regulate henceforth the right of preference of France in regard to the Belgian colony of the Congo: ARTICLE 1. The Belgian government recognizes the fact that France has a right of preference over its possessions in the Congo, in case of the alienation in whole or in part, of the latter burdened with certain conditions. Any exchange of territories of the Congo with a foreign power; every concession, lease of the said territories, in whole or in part, to a foreign state or to a foreign company invested with the rights of sovereignty, will equally give rise to the exercise of the right of preference of France, and will form, consequently, the subject of previous negotiation between the Belgian government and the government of the French Republic. ARTICLE 2. The Belgian government declares that no cession will ever be made gratuitously, of all or part of these same possessions. ARTICLE 3. The stipulations provided in the above articles apply to all the Belgian territories in the Congo. In faith of which, the undersigned have drawn up the present arrangement, and have attached their seals thereto. Done in duplicate, at Paris, December 23, 1908. S. PICHON. A. LEGHAIT. 11. Declaration. The government of the French Republic and the Belgian government, Desiring to complete without delay the delimitation between Manyanga and the ocean of the frontier of their African possessions, defined by the convention of February 5, 1885, concluded between the government of the French republic and the International Association of the Congo, Having ascertained, following the examination made by the FrancoCongo commission of delimitation, that the existence of a topographical irregularity unforeseen by the convention aforesaid, had caused a part of the frontier comprised between the most northern source of the Shiloango (the peak of Kiama) and the beginning of the crest of the watershed between the Niadi-Guillou and the Congo (the peak of Bembo), to be left undetermined. Agree to take as a basis of a final regulation, on the one hand, the text of the convention of 1885 as a whole, on the other hand, the procèsverbaux of the mixed commission and to complete article 3 of the said convention by the addition of a new provision. Consequently the two governments, agreeing to recognize as a final document the map of the entire frontier as established by the mixed commission, adopt the summit line comprised between the peak of Kiama and the peak of Bembo as the limit of their possessions between the most northern source of the Shiloango and the crest of the watershed between the Niadi-Guillou and the Congo. III. The government of the French Republic and the Belgian government agree to adopt as the limits of their respective possessions in StanleyPool: The middle line of Stanley-Pool as far as the point of contact of this line with the island of Bamu, the southern shore of this island to its eastern extremity, then the middle line of Stanley-Pool. The island of Bamu, the waters and islets included between the island of Bamu and the northern shore of Stanley-Pool shall belong to France, 2 This reenacts, with modifications, a similar agreement, dated February 5, 1895. British and Foreign State Papers, 90:1280. the waters and islands included between the island of Bamu and the southern shore of Stanley-Pool shall belong to Belgium. The territory of the island of Bamu is placed under a régime of perpetual neutrality. No military establishment can be created there and it is understood that the territory so neutralized shall be at most subjected to the régime provided by the final provision of article 11 of the general act of Berlin.1 ADDITIONAL EXTRADITION CONVENTION BETWEEN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN. Signed October 17, 1908. The President of the French Republic and his majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British territories beyond the seas, Emperor of India, desirous of modifying the provisions of article 2 of the treaty concluded August 14, 1876, between Great Britain and France for the reciprocal extradition of fugitive criminals, have respectively named as plenipotentiaries, for this purpose, to wit: The President of the French Republic: M. Stéphen Pichon, senátor, minister of foreign affairs, and His majesty, the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the territories beyond the seas, emperor of India; His excellency, Right Honorable Sir Francis Bertie, his ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary near the government of the French Republic, etc.; Who, after having respectively communicated their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles: ARTICLE 1. Article 2 of the extradition convention of August 14, 1876, is modified as follows: Each of the high contracting parties shall be free to refuse to the other the extradition of its own nationals; however, in the case of a 1 See SUPPLEMENT, 3:14 (January, 1909). 2 2 Up to this point the original article was as follows: "Native-born or naturalized subjects of either country are excepted from extradition, etc." The balance of the article was the same as the above. |