714. ARTICLE VI.

The Consular offices shall at all times be inviolable. The local authorities shall not, under any pretext, invade them. In no case shall they examine or seize the papers there deposited. In no case shall those offices be used as places of asylum. When a Consular Officer is engaged in other business, the papers relating to the Consulate shall be kept separate.

715. ARTICLE VII.

In the event of the death, incapacity, or absence of Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, their Chancellers or Secretaries, whose official character may have previously been made known to the Department of.State at Washington, or to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Belgium, may temporarily exercise their functions, and while thus acting they shall enjoy all the rights, prerogatives, and immunities granted to the incumbents.

716. ARTICLE VIII.

Consuls-General and Consuls may, so far as the laws of their country allow, with the approbation of their respective Governments, appoint Vice-Consuls and Consular Agents in the cities, ports, and places within their consular jurisdiction. These agents may be selected from among citizens of the United States or of Belgium, or those of other countries. They shall be furnished with a regular commission, and shall enjoy the privileges stipulated for Consular Officers in this convention, subject to the exceptions specified in Articles 3 and 4.

717. ARTICLE IX.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall have the right to address the administrative and judicial authorities, whether in the United States of the Union, the States or the municipalities, or in Belgium, of the State, the province or the commune, throughout the whole extent of their consular jurisdiction, in order to complain of any infraction of the treaties and conventions between the United States and Belgium, and for the purpose of protecting the rights and interests of their countrymen. If the complaint should not be satisfactorily redressed, the Consular Officers aforesaid, in the absence of a Diplomatic Agent of their country, may apply directly to the Government of the country where they exercise their functions.

718. ARTICLE X.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents may take at their offices, at their private residence, at the residence of the parties, or on board ship, the depositions of the captains and crews of vessels of

their own country, of passengers on board of them, and of any other citizen of their nation. They may also receive at their offices, conformably to the laws and regulations of their country, all contracts between the citizens of their country and the citizens or other inhabitants of the country where they reside, and even all contracts between the latter, provided they relate to property situated or to business to be transacted in the territory of the nation to which the said Consular Officer may belong.

Such papers and official documents of every kind, whether in the original, in copies, or in translation, duly authenticated and legalized by the Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, and sealed with their official seal, shall be received as legal documents in courts of justice throughout the United States and Belgium.

719. ARTICLE XI.

The respective Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall have exclusive charge of the internal order of the merchant vessels of their nation, and shall alone take cognizance of all differences which may arise, either at sea or in port, between the captains, officers, and crews, without exception, particularly in reference to the adjustment of wages and the execution of contracts. The local authorities shall not interfere except when the disorder that has arisen is of such a nature as to disturb tranquillity and public order on shore or in the port, or when a person of the country or not belonging to the crew shall be concerned therein.

In all other cases the aforesaid authorities shall confine themselves to lending aid to the Consuls and Vice-Consuls or Consular Agents, if they are requested by them to do so, in causing the arrest and imprisonment of any person whose name is inscribed on the crew-list, whenever, for any cause, the said officers shall think proper.

720. ARTICLE XII.

The respective Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents may cause to be arrested the officers, sailors, and all other persons making part of the crews, in any manner whatever, of ships of war or merchant vessels of their nation, who may be guilty, or be accused, of having deserted said ships and vessels, for the purpose of sending them on board or back to their country. To this end they shall address the competent local authorities of the respective countries, in writing, and shall make to them a written request for the deserters, supporting it by the exhibition of the register of the vessel and list of the crew, or by other official documents, to show that the persons claimed belong to the said ship's company.

Upon such request, thus supported, the delivery to them of the deserters cannot be refused, unless it should be duly proved that they were citizens of the country where their extradition is demanded at the time of their being inscribed on the crew-list. All the necessary aid and pro

tection shall be furnished for the pursuit, seizure, and arrest of the deserters, who shall even be put and kept in the prisons of the country, at the request and expense of the Consular Officers, until there may be an opportunity for sending them away. If, however, such an opportunity should not present itself within the space of three months, counting from the day of the arrest, the deserters shall be set at liberty, nor shall they be again arrested for the same cause.

If the deserter has committed any misdemeanor, and the court having the right to take cognizance of the offense shall claim and exercise it, the delivery of the deserter shall be deferred until the decision of the court has been pronounced and executed.

721. ARTICLE XIII.

In the absence of an agreement to the contrary between the owners, freighters, and insurers, all damages suffered at sea by the vessels of the two countries, whether they enter port voluntarily, or are forced by stress of weather, shall be settled by the Consuls-General, Consuls, ViceConsuls, and Consular Agents of the respective countries. If, however, any inhabitant of the country or citizen or subject of a third power, shall be interested in the matter, and the parties cannot agree, the competent local authorities shall decide.

722. ARTICLE XIV.

All proceedings relative to the salvage of vessels of the United States wrecked upon the coasts of Belgium, and of Belgian vessels wrecked upon the coasts of the United States, shall be directed by the Consuls-General, Consuls, and Vice-Consuls of the two countries respectively, and until their arrival, by the respective Consular Agents, wherever an agency exists. In the places and ports where an agency does not exist, the local authorities, until the arrival of the Consul in whose district the wreck may have occurred, and who shall be immediately informed of the occurrence, shall take all necessary measures for the protection of persons and the preservation of wrecked property.

The local authorities shall not otherwise interfere than for the maintenance of order, the protection of the interests of the salvors if these do not belong to the crews that have been wrecked, and to carry into effect the arrangements made for the entry and exportation of the merchandise saved.

It is understood that such merchandise is not to be subjected to any custom-house charges, unless it be intended for consumption in the country where the wreck may have taken place.

The intervention of the local authorities in these different cases shall occasion no expense of any kind, except such as may be caused by the operations of salvage and the preservation of the goods saved, together with such as would be incurred under similar circumstances by vessels of the nation.

723. ARTICLE XV.

In case of the death of any citizen of the United States in Belgium, or of a citizen of Belgium in the United States, without having any known heirs or testamentary executor by him appointed, the competent local authorities shall give information of the circumstance to the Consuls or Consular Agents of the nation to which the deceased belongs, in order that the necessary information may be immediately forwarded to parties interested.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall have the right to appear, personally or by delegate, in all proceedings on behalf of the absent or minor heirs, or creditors, until they are duly represented.

BOLIVIA.

Treaty concluded May 13, 1858 (Peace, Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation).

724. ARTICLE XXXI.

To make effectual the protection which the United States and the Republic of Bolivia shall afford in future to the navigation and commerce of the citizens of each other, they agree to receive and admit Consuls and Vice-Consuls in all the ports open to foreign commerce, who shall enjoy in them all the rights, prerogatives, and immunities of the Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the most favored nation, each contracting party, however, remaining at liberty to except those ports and places in which the admission and residence of such Consuls and Vice-Consuls may not seem convenient.

725. ARTICLE XXXII.

In order that the Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the two contracting parties may enjoy the rights, immunities, and prerogatives which belong to them by their public character, they shall, before entering upon their functions, exhibit their commission or patent in due form to the Government to which they are accredited, and, having obtained their exequatur, they shall be held and considered as such by all the authorities, magis trates, and inhabitants in the Consular District in which they reside,

726. ARTICLE XXXIII.

It is also agreed that the Consuls and Officers, and persons attached to the Consulate, they not being citizens of the country in which the Consul resides, shall be exempted from all kinds of imposts and contributions, except those which they shall be obliged to pay on account of their

commerce or property, to which the citizens or inhabitants, native or foreign, of the country in which they reside are subject, being, in everything besides, subject to the laws of the respective States. The archives and papers of the Consulate shall be respected inviolably, and under no pretext whatever shall any magistrate seize or in any way interfere with them.

727. ARTICLE XXXIV.

The said Consul shall have power to require the assistance of the authorities of the country for the arrest, detention, and custody of deserters from the public and private vessels of their country; and for that purpose they shall address themselves to the courts, judges, and officers competent, and shall demand the said deserters in writing, proving by an exhibition of the registers of the vessel's or ship's roll, or other public documents, that those men were part of the said crews; and on this demand, so proved (saving, however, when the contrary is proved), the delivery shall not be refused. Such deserters, when arrested, shall be put at the disposal of said consuls, and may be put in the public prisons, at the request and expense of those who reclaim them, to be sent to the ships to which they belonged, or to others of the same nation; but if they be not sent back within two months, to be counted from the day of their arrest, they shall be set at liberty, and shall be no more arrested for the same cause.

BORNEO.

Treaty concluded June 23, 1850 (Peace and Friendship).

728. ARTICLE IX.

His highness the Sultan of Borneo agrees that in all cases where a citizen of the United States shall be accused of any crime committed in any part of his highness's dominions, the person so accused shall be exclusively tried and adjudged by the American Consul, or other officer duly appointed for that purpose; and in all cases where disputes or differences may arise between American citizens, or between American citizens and the subjects of his highness, or between American citizens and the citizens or subjects of any other foreign power in the dominions of the Sultan of Borneo, the American Consul, or other duly appointed officer, shall have power to hear and decide the same, without any interference, molestation, or hindrance on the part of any authority of Borneo, either before, during, or after the litigation.