No. 33.

RUSSIA.

STATUTES OF THE CHINESE EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY.a

ST. PETERSBURG, DECEMBER 4/16, 1896.

[Translation.]

The Minister of Finances presented on the 8 20th December, 1896, to the Ruling Senate for publication a copy of the Statutes of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company, which were Imperially confirmed on the 4 16th December, 1896.

STATUTES OF THE CHINESE EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY.

FORMATION OF THE COMPANY.

$1. On the strength of the Agreement concluded on the 27th August 8th September, 1896, by the Imperial Chinese Government with the Russo-Chinese Bank, a Company is formed under the name of the "Eastern Chinese Railway Company" for the construction and working of a railway within the confines of China from one of the points on the western borders of the Provinces of Hei-Lun-Tsian, to one of the points on the eastern borders of the Province of Ghirin and for the connection of this railway with those branches which the Imperial Russian Government will construct to the Chinese frontier from Trans-Baikalia and the southern Ussuri lines."

The formation of the Company shall be undertaken by the RussoChinese Bank.

With the formation of the Company all rights and obligations are transferred to it in regard to the construction and working of the line ceded in virtue of the above-named Agreement of the 27th August 8th September, 1896.

a"British and Foreign State Papers," Vol. LXXXVIII, p. 773, and Official Gazette ("Bulletin des Lois") of the 11th/23rd December, 1896, No. 137.

b Observation.—The Company is empowered, subject to the sanction of the Chinese Government, to exploit, in connection with the railway or independently of it, coal mines, as also to exploit in China other enterprises-mining, industrial, and commercial. For the working of these enterprises which may be independent of the railway, the Company shall keep accounts separate from those of the railway.

The Company shall be recognized as formed on the presentation to the Minister of Finances of a warrant of the State Bank certifying the payment of the first instalment on the shares. In any case such payment must be made not later than two months from the day of confirmation of the present Statutes.

The succeeding instalments on the shares shall be paid in such orders of gradation that the shares shall be fully paid up at their nominal value not later than one year from the day of formation of the Company.

Owners of shares of the Company may only be Russian and Chinese subjects.

TERM OF CONCESSION.

§2. In virtue of the Agreement with the Chinese Government, the Company shall retain possession of Chinese Eastern Railway during the course of eighty years from the day of the opening of traffic along the whole line.

OBLIGATION TOWARDS THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT.

§3. In recognition that the enterprise of the Chinese Eastern Railway will be realized only owing to the guarantee given by the Russian Government in regard to the revenue of the line for covering working expenses as well as for effecting the obligatory payments on the bonds. (§§11, 16), the Company, on its part, binds itself to the Russian Government during the whole term of the Concession under the following obligations:

(a) The Chinese Eastern Railway with all its appurtenances and rolling-stock must be always maintained in full order for satisfying all the requirements of the service of the line, in regard to the safety, comfort, and uninterrupted conveyance of passengers and goods;

(b) The traffic on the Chinese Eastern line must be maintained con formably with the degree of traffic on the Russian railway lines adjoining the Chinese line;

(c) The trains of all descriptions running between the Russian TransBaikal and Ussuri lines shall be received by the Chinese Eastern Railway and dispatched to their destination in full complement without delay;

(d) All through trains, both passenger and goods, shall be dispatched by the Eastern Chinese Railway at rates of speed not lower than those which shall be adopted on the Siberian Railway;

(e) The Chinese Eastern Railway is bound to establish and maintain a telegraph along the whole extent of the line and to connect it with the telegraph-wire of the Russian adjoining railways, and to receive and dispatch without delay through telegrams sent from one frontier station of the line to another, as also telegrams sent from Russia to China, and conversely;

(f) Should, with the development of traffic on the Chinese Eastern Railway, its technical organization prove insufficient for satisfying the requirements of a regular and uninterrupted passenger and goods traffic, the Chinese Eastern Railway shall immediately, on receipt of a notification on the part of the Russian railways to augment its capacity to a corresponding degree, adopt the necessary measures for further developing its technical organization and the traffic on it. In the event of a difference of opinion arising between the above-mentioned railways, the Chinese Eastern Railway shall submit to the decision of the Russian Minister of Finances. If the means at the command of the Chinese Eastern Railway prove insufficient for carrying, out the necessary work of its development, the Board of Management of the railway may at all times apply to the Russian Minister of Finances for pecuniary assistance on the part of the Russian Government;

(g) For all transit conveyance of passengers and goods, as also for the transmission of telegrams there will be established by agreement of the Company with the Russian Government for the whole term of duration of the Concession (§ 2), maximum tariffs, which cannot be raised without the consent of the Russian Government during the whole term above referred to. Within these limits the tariffs of direct communication both for railway carriage and telegrams will be fixed by the Board of Management of the Company on the strength of a mutual agreement with the Russian Minister of Finances;

(h) The Russian letter and parcels post, as also the officials accompanying the same, shall be carried by the Chinese Eastern Railway free of charge.

For this purpose the company shall set apart in each ordinary passenger train a carriage compartment of 3 fathoms in length. The Russian postal authorities may, moreover, if they deem it necessary, place on the line postal carriages, constructed by them at their own cost; and the repair, maintenance (interior fittings excepted) as well as the running of such carriages with the trains shall be free of charge and at the cost of the railway.

The above-mentioned engagements, by which, as already stated, the grant of a guarantee by the Russian Government is conditioned and the consequent realization of the enterprise of the Chinese Eastern Railway, shall be binding on the railway until the same, after the expiration of the eighty years' term of the Concession, shall without payment become the property of the Chinese Government (§ 29). The redemption of the line from the Company before the above-mentioned term in accordance with § 30 of the present Statutes shall not in any way diminish the effect of the above specified engagements, and these latter, together with the railway, shall be transferred to its new proprietor.

In the same manner during the course of the whole eighty years term of the Concession (§ 2) the following privileges granted to the railway by the Imperial Chinese Government shall remain in force:

(a) Passengers' luggage, as also goods, carried in transit from one Russian station shall not be liable to any Chinese customs duties, and shall be exempt from all internal Chinese dues and taxes;

(b) The rates for the carriage of passengers and goods, for telegrams, &c., shall be free from all Chinese taxes and dues;

(c) Goods imported from Russia into China by rail and exported from China to Russia in the same manner shall pay respectively an import or export Chinese duty to the extent of one-third less as compared with the duty imposed at Chinese seaport custom-houses.

(d) If goods imported by the railway are destined for conveyance inland they shall in such case be subject to payment of transit duty to the extent of one-half of the import duty levied on them, and they shall then be exempted from any additional imposts. Goods which shall not have paid transit duty shall be liable to payment of all established internal barrier and likin dues.

IMMUNITIES OF THE COMPANY IN REGARD TO RUSSIAN CUSTOMS DUES.

§4. In regard to the place of acquisition of materials for the requirements of the railway, the Company shall not be liable to any limitations. If materials be obtained beyond the confines of Russia, they shall, on importation through Russian territory, be freed from payment of Russian customs duties.

TECHNICAL CONDITIONS; PERIODS OF TIME FOR THE COMMENCEMENT AND TERMINATION OF THE WORK.

$5. The breadth of the railway track must be the same as that of the Russian lines (5 feet).

The Company must commence the work not later than the 16th August, 1897, and conduct it in such a manner that the whole line shall be completed not later than six years from the time when the direction of the line shall be finally determined and the necessary land assigned to the Company.

When tracing the line of the railway, cemeteries and graves, as also towns and villages, must as far as possible, be left aside of the railway.

When effecting the connection, in accordance with § 1 of these Statutes, of the Chinese Eastern Railway with the Russian Trans-Baikal and South Ussuri lines the Company shall have the right, with a view of reduction of expenditure, of abstaining from building its own frontier stations and of utilizing the frontier stations of the above-named Russian lines. The conditions on which they shall be utilized shall be determined by agreement of the Board of the Company with the Boards of the respective railways.

TARIFFS.

§6. The tariffs for the carriage of passengers and goods, as also for supplementary carriage rates, shall be determined by the Company itself, within the limits indicated in § 3.

ORDER OF EXAMINATION OF LEGAL SUITS, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RULES FOR RAILWAY CONVEYANCE.

§ 7. Offences, litigation, &c., on the territory of the Chinese castern Railway shalt be dealt with by local authorities, Chinese and Russian, on the basis of existing Treaties.

In regard to the carriage of passengers and goods, the responsibility for such conveyance, the lapse of time for claims, the order of recovering money from the railway when adjudged, and the relations of the railway to the public shall be defined in rules drawn up by the Company and established before the opening of the railway traffic; these rules shall be framed in accordance with those existing on Russian railways.

MAINTENANCE OF SECURITY AND ORDER ON THE RAILWAY.

$8. The Chinese Government has undertaken" to adopt measures for securing the safety of the railway and of all employed on it against any extraneous attacks.

The preservation of law and order on the lands assigned to the railway and its appurtenances shall be confided to police agents appointed by the Company.

The Company shall for this purpose draw up and establish police regulations.

FOUNDATION CAPITAL OF THE COMPANY.

$9. The whole amount of the capital of the Company shall be determined according to the cost of construction calculated on the basis of estimates framed when the survey of the line was carried out. The foundation capital shall be charged with—

(a) The payment of interest and amortization of the foundation capital during the construction of the railway;

(b) The purchase from the Russian Government of the results of the surveys of the direction of the railway to Manchuria, which were made by Russian engineers, the sum payable for these surveys being determined by agreement of the Russian Minister of Finances with the Company.

The capital of the Company shall be formed by the issue of shares and bonds.

a See supra, p. 213, par. 5.