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ARTICLE VII.-The vessels of both the High Contracting Parties, which are at liberty to trade freely at open ports in time of peace, shall, in the event of either of the High Contracting Parties being at war with any foreign nation and for that reason excluding the vessels of that nation from her ports, be entitled none the less to continue to pursue their commerce in freedom and security and to transport goods to and from the ports of the belligerent powers, full respect being paid to the neutrality of the flag in strict compliance with the usages of neutrality, provided that the said neutral flag shall not protect vessels engaged in the transportation of troops, and that the said flag shall not be illegally used to enable the enemy's ships with their cargoes to enter the ports of the High Contracting Party concerned. Vessels offending against the above provisions shall be subject to confiscation by the Government offended. ARTICLE VIII.-The ships of war of either of the High Contracting Parties, provided previous notice has been given, shall be admitted into the ports of the other, where such vessels of other nations are allowed to enter, and shall receive the same treatment as ships of war of the most favoured nation. They shall receive from the local Authorities every facility for the purchase of coal and provisions, for procuring water, and if occasion requires, for the making of repairs.

Ships of war shail be exempt from the payment of all duties both on arrival and departure.

The Commanders of ships of war shall hold intercourse with the superior officers of ports on terms of equality.

ARTICLE IX.-Swedish subjects may travel to all parts of the interior of China under passports issued by Swedish Consuls and countersigned by the local authorities. These passports, if demanded, must be produced for examination in the localities passed through. If the passports be not irregular, the bearers will be allowed to proceed and they shall be at liberty to hire persons, animals, carts or vessels for their own conveyance or for the carriage of their personal effects or merchandise. If the Swedish subjects be without passports or if they commit any offence against the law, they shall be handed over to the nearest Consul for punishment; but they shall only be subject to necessary restraint and in no case to ill usage. Such passports shall remain in force for a period of twelve months from the date of issue. Swedish subjects travelling in the interior without passports shall be liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred taels. They may, however, go without passports on excursions from any of the ports open to trade, to a distance not exceeding one hundred Chinese li and for a period not exceeding five days. The provisions of this Article do not apply to crews of ships.

Chinese subjects shall be at liberty to travel throughout the territory of Sweden, provided that they conduct themselves peaceably and do not violate the laws and regulations of the country.

ARTICLE X.-The duly authorized Swedish Authorities shall hear and decide all cases brought against Swedish subject by Swedish subjects, or by the subjects or citizens of any other foreign Power, without the intervention of the Chinese Authorities.

However, as China is now engaged in reforming her judicial system it is hereby agreed that as soon as all other Treaty Powers have agreed to relinquish their extra-territorial rights, Sweden will also be prepared to do so.

Charges or complaints of a civil nature brought by the subjects of either of the High Contracting Parties against the subjects of the other shall be heard and decided impartially by the Authorities who have jurisdiction over the defendants, in accordance with the procedure observed in similar charges or complaints brought by subjects of the most favoured nation.

Subjects of either of the High Contracting Parties charged with the commission of any crimes or offences shall be tried by the Authorities who have jurisdiction over the accused with the procedure observed in similar cases of the most favoured nation, and, if found guilty,, shall be punished in accordance with the laws of their own country.

ARTICLE XI.—If Swedish subjects in China, who have committed offences or have failed to discharge debts and fraudulently abscond in order to evade a summons or a warrant of arrest, should flee to the interior of China or take refuge in houses occupied by Chinese subjects or on board Chinese ships, the Chinese Authorities shall, at the request of the Swedish Consul, deliver them to the Swedish Authorities.

In like manner, if Chinese subjects in China, who have committed offences or have failed to discharge debts and fraudulently abscond, should take refuge in houses occupied by Swedish subjects in China or on board Swedish ships in Chinese waters, they shall be delivered up at the request of the Chinese Authorities made to the Swedish Authorities.

Such offenders shall in no case be shielded or withheld from arrest by either of the High Contracting Parties.

ARTICLE XII.—The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good and to do to others as they would have others to do to them. Those who quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted on account of their faith. Any person, whether Swedish subject or Chinese convert, who, according to these tenets, peaceably teaches and practises the principles of Christianity shall in no case be interfered with or molested therefor. No restrictions shall be placed on Chinese joining Christian Churches. Converts and nonconverts, being Chinese subjects, shall alike conform to the laws of China; and living together in peace and amity, shall pay due respect to those in authority. The fact of being a convert shall not protect a Chinese subject from the consequences of any offence he may have committed before or may commit after his admission into the church, or exempt him from paying legal taxes levied on Chinese subjects generally, except taxes and contributions levied for the support of religious customs and practices contrary to their faith. Missionaries shall not. interfere with the exercise by the native authorities of their jurisdiction over Chinese subjects; nor shall the native authorities make any distinction between converts and non-converts, but shall administer the laws without partiality so that both classes may live together in peace.

Swedish missionary societies shall be permitted to rent and to lease in per

petuity, as the property of such societies, buildings or lands in all parts of the Empire for missionary purpose, and, after the title deeds have been found in order and duly stamped by the local authorities, to erect such suitable buildings as may be required for carrying on their good work.

ARTICLE XIII.—It is hereby declared that the provisions of the Treaty now existing between Sweden and China, in so far as they are not modified by stipulations of the present Treaty, shall continue in full force, and it is further expressly stipulated that the Governments, Officers and Subjects of both of the High Contracting Parties shall be allowed free and full participation in all privileges, immunities, and advantages which have been or may hereafter be granted by either of the High Contracting Parties to the Governments, Officers and Subjects of any other Treaty Powers, in regard to commerce, navigation, shipping, industries or property.

The High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves the right to conclude agreements regarding frontier trade with neighbouring countries, and it is understood that, in case either of the High Contracting Parties should hereafter grant to any other nation advantages subject to special conditions, the other High Contracting Party shall enjoy said advantages only provided it complies with the conditions imposed therein or their equivalent, to be mutually agreed upon.

ARTICLE XIV.-The Agreements, Rules and Regulations subsisting between and binding both China and the Treaty Powers, so far as they are applicable and not inconsistent with the provisions of this Treaty, shall be binding on both of the High Contracting Parties.

ARTICLE XV. It is agreed that either of the High Contracting Parties may demand a revision of the Articles of this Treaty at the end of ten years from the date of the exchange of the ratifications; but if no such demand for the revision is expressed on either side within six months after the end of the first ten years, then the Treaty in its present form shall remain in force for ten years more, reckoned from the end of the preceding ten years, and so it shall be at the end of each successive period of ten years.

ARTICLE XVI.-This Treaty, shall on the exchange of ratifications by His Majesty the King of Sweden and by His Majesty the Emperor of China, be kept and sacredly guarded in the following manner, viz:

The original Treaty as ratified by the Emperor of China shall be deposited at Stockholm, the capital of His Majesty the King of Sweden, in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and as ratified by the King of Sweden shall be deposited at Peking, the capital of His Majesty the Emperor of China, in charge of the Wai-Wu-Pu.

The High Contracting Parties agree that immediately after the exchange of ratifications, the provisions of this treaty shall be published in order that the officials and people of the two countries may know and observe them.

ARTICLE XVII.-The present Treaty is signed in the Swedish, Chinese and English languages. In order, however, to prevent future discussions, the Plenipotentiaries of the High Contracting Parties have agreed that in case of any divergence in the interpretation between the Swedish and Chinese text of the Treaty, the difference shall be settled by reference to the English text.

The ratifications of this Treaty, under the hand of His Majesty the King of Sweden and of His Majesty the Emperor of China respectively, shall be exchanged at Peking within a year from the date of signature.§

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

Done at Peking, this second day of July in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Eight corresponding with the Chinese date the Fourth Day of the Sixth Moon of the Thirty-Fourth Year of Kwang Hsu.

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The following additional article which has to-day been concluded and signed by the undersigned Gustaf Oscar Wallenberg, His Swedish Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Peking, and by His Excellency Lien Fang v. President of the Wai-Wu-Pu, both being duly authorised thereto by their respective Governments, shall form part and be appended to the Treaty between Sweden and China which was signed and concluded at Peking on the 2nd of July 1908, corresponding with the Chinese date the Fourth Day of the Sixth Moon of the Thirty-Fourth Year of Kwang Hsu.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE:-It is expressly agreed by the High Contracting Parties, that the provisions of Article IV of the present Treaty shall in no respect whatever confer upon Swedish subjects in China or upon Chinese subjects in Sweden any privileges or immunities, other than those already granted or which may hereafter be granted to the subjects or citizens of the most favoured nation. Done at Peking, May twenty fourth in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Nine corresponding with the Chinese date sixth day of the fourth moon of the first year of Hsuan Tung.

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FRANCE (Banque de l'Indo-Chine), GREAT BRITAIN (Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation) AND CHINA.

Agreement for a loan of £5,000,000 to the Board of Posts and Communications.*-October 8, 1908.

This agreement is made between the Board of Posts and Communications at Peking, acting for and on behalf of the Imperial Government of China under

*Text as printed in Wang, p. 79. Printed also in For. Rel., 1908, p. 203.

The primary purpose of this loan was the redemption of the Peking-Hankow Railway loan issued under the contract of June 26, 1898 (No. 1898/13, ante). See also the prospectus of the seven per cent. Peking-Hankow Railway redemption loan of the same date (No. 1908/13, post).

§ Ratifications were exchanged at Peking, June 14, 1909.

the authority of an Imperial Edict dated the fourteenth day of the ninth month. of the thirty-fourth year of the Emperor Kuang-hsü (being the 8th day of October 1908), hereinafter called the Board, of the one part, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Banque de l'Indo-Chine, hereinafter called the Contracting Banks, of the other part.

1.—The Imperial Chinese Government hereby authorizes the contracting Banks, either by themselves or associated with others, to issue an Imperial Chinese Government Gold Loan, in one issue, of the amount of Five million pounds sterling.

Of the proceeds of this loan the Imperial Chinese Government will employ eighty per cent in Europe to complete the redemption of certain railway loans; the balance of the proceeds, namely twenty per cent, will be employed by the Board of Posts and Communications in productive works of public utility coming within the Department and functions of that Board.

2. The term of the loan shall be thirty years, and the principal shall be repaid to the bondholders in twenty equal annual instalments of Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds (£250,000) commencing with the eleventh year; but the Imperial Chinese Government on giving a previous notice of six months to the contracting Banks, shall have the right to redeem the whole loan, or increase the regular redemption by extra drawings, after the fifteenth year and up to the twenty-third year inclusive by the payment of a premium of two and one half per cent upon the par value of each extra bond so redeemed, that is to say by the payment of £102.10 for each £100 bond, and shall have the right to redeem the whole loan or increase the regular redemption by extra drawings, after the twenty-third year at par. Any such extra drawings must take place in Europe on the date of an ordinary drawing provided for in the Prospectus of the loan. 3. The loan shall bear interest during the first fifteen years at the rate of five per cent per annum, and thereafter from the sixteenth year, at the rate of four and one half per cent per annum on the nominal principal from time to time outstanding, and the interest shall be paid to the bondholders half-yearly. The interest shall commence from the date on which the loan is issued to the public, and will cease upon complete redemption of the loan.

4. The service of principal and interest of this loan due to the bondholders shall be paid in equal shares to the contracting Banks in Shanghai by the Board, who will hand to those Banks, ten days before the due date of every yearly payment of principal and half-yearly payment of interest as calculated from the date of issue of the loan, funds in Shanghai sycee sufficient to meet each payment in gold in Europe, the exchange for which will be settled by the contracting Banks on the same day on a fair basis after arrangement with the Board; but the Board will have the option of settling exchange in equal shares with the two contracting banks at any date or dates within six months previous to the due date of any payment. These payments may be made in gold in Europe should the Imperial Chinese Government have funds in Europe at its disposal, not remitted for the purpose, and desire so to employ them.

In reimbursement of expenses connected with the payment of interest and

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