of the Ministers of Finance, of Marine and Colonies, and the Minister of Public Works, Commerce and Industry; I have been pleased to resolve that, from the date of this decree, all postal parcels received in Portugal destined for the officers or men of ships of war anchored in Portuguese ports shall be delivered on board exempt from any customs duties or postal dues, if the same treatment be conceded in the ports of the respectives nationalities to Portuguese ships of war. The Ministers and Secretaries of State to take notice of the same, and cause it to be put into force. The Palace, February 8, 1906. COUNT DE PENHA GARCIA. MANUEL ANTONIO MOREIRA, Junior. ANTONIO FERREIRA CABRAL PAES DO AMARAL. THE KING, AGREEMENT for the Exchange of Value-payable Articles between the Post Offices of British and Portuguese India.— Signed at Goa, January 28, 1907, and at Calcutta, February 11, 1907. In order to establish an exchange of value-payable articles between British India and Portuguese India, the undersigned have agreed upon the following temporary agreement: ART. I. All classes of registered correspondence, insured letters, and parcels, both insured and uninsured, may be exchanged under the value-payable system between Portuguese India and British India. Such articles shall be subject to the same general regulations and rates as other articles of the same classes. The offices of exchange for value-payable articles shall be, on the side of Portuguese India : Goa, Daman, and Diu ; and on the side of British India: Bombay. II. The maximum charge which may be collected on any one article shall be 600 rupees. III. Each value-payable article shall be stamped or labelled with the words "Value-payable." IV. Value-payable articles shall be entered in the registered list, insured letter invoice, or parcel bill in the same way as other registered articles, insured letters, and insured or uninsured parcels, as the case may be, but with the addition, in the column for "Remarks," of the words "Value-payable," followed by an entry both in words and figures, without erasure or alteration, of the amount in rupee currency to be remitted to the sender, and also of sender's name and full address in clear characters. V. The amount to be remitted to the sender, together with the commission thereon (at the rate in force for ordinary money orders drawn on the country of origin of the value-payable article), shall be collected from the addressee. The amount to be remitted to the sender shall be transmitted to the latter by postal money order, and the commission shall be retained by the Administration which issues the money order. VI. Value-payable money orders shall be advised to the country of payment in the same way as ordinary money orders but in separate lists. In the column for remarks of the list shall be entered opposite each value-payable money order the letters "V. P.," followed by the words "Remitted on account of V. P. article entered at No. . . . of registered list (insured letter, invoice parcel bill), dated the . . ." The amount of an undeliverable money order of this kind shall remain at the disposal of the Administration of the country of origin of the value-payable article. VII. Value-payable money order transactions shall be embodied in the quarterly account relating to the exchange of ordinary money orders between Portuguese India and British India, the credits to be given or taken being the same as in the case of ordinary money orders. In the case of parcels sent under the value-payable system, the share of the postage belonging to each Administration shall be accounted for as usual in the parcel accounts between Portuguese India and British India, and in the case of insured letters and insured parcels sent under the value-payable system, the share of the insurance fee due to each Administration shall be accounted for as usual in the insured letter and insured parcels accounts between the two Administrations. VIII. If the addressee of a value-payable article does not pay the amount of a charge within the limit of time prescribed by the internal regulations of the country of delivery, the article shall be sent back to the office of origin. Each country shall communicate to the other its internal regulations in this respect. IX. In the event of the loss of a value-payable registered article, or when a value-payable insured letter or a value-payable insured or uninsured parcel has been lost or damaged or its contents abstracted, the responsibility shall be fixed and compensation paid under the same conditions as in the case of other registered articles, insured letters, or insured or uninsured parcels, as the case may be. When, however, such an article, letter, or parcel has once been delivered, the Administration of the country of destination shall be responsible for the sum collected, and must, if necessary, prove that it has remitted it, less the prescribed commission, to the sender. X. The provisions of the present Agreement shall apply exclusively to value-payable articles originating in Portuguese India or British India, as the case may be. XI. The present Agreement shall take effect on the 1st April, 1907. It shall then continue in force until it shall be modified or determined by mutual consent of the contracting parties or until one year after the date on which one of the contracting parties shall have notified the other of its intention to determine it. Executed in duplicate and signed. At Calcutta the 11th February, 1907. MINTO, Viceroy and Governor-General of British ARNALDE DE NOVAES GUEDES REBELLO, EXCHANGE OF NOTES between the Portuguese and Russian Governments relating to the Duties on Petroleum and Cod Fish.-St. Petersbury, October 30 (November 12), 1906. Portuguese Chargé d'Affaires at St. Petersburg to Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs. M. LE MINISTRE, Saint-Pétersbourg, le 30 octobre, (12 novembre), 1906. J'AI l'honneur de communiquer à votre Excellence que mon Gouvernement, ayant estimé les bonnes dispositions du Gouvernement Impérial à propos d'une modification de la Convention commerciale et protocole final de 1895* dans le sens indiqué dans le mémorandum de cette légation du 14 (27) avril, 1904, et la note du Ministère Impérial des Affaires Étrangères du 27 mai (9 juin), 1904, vient de me charger de la proposer à votre Excellence dans les termes qui suivent : : Le Gouvernement portugais renonce à son intention de relever les droits sur le pétrole russe dans les conditions énoncées dans le No. 3 du protocole final de la Convention commerciale, 1895, en échange de la renonciation de la part du Gouvernement russe aux droits d'entrée en Portugal de la morue de toute sorte inscrits dans le Tarif (B) annexé à la même Convention. Conséquemment seront appliqués les droits d'après le tarif général portugais à l'entrée en Portugal de la morue de toute sorte qui ne sera pas en cours de route au moment de la publication à Lisbonne de l'avis officiel concernant la présente modification. Je profite, &c. ANTONIO BANEIRA, * Vol. LXXXVII, pages 514 and 520, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs to Portuguese Chargé d'Affaires at St. Petersburg. M. LE CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES, Saint-Pétersbourg, le 30 octobre, (12 novembre), 1906. PAR votre note en date de ce jour relativement à l'accord intervenu entre le Gouvernement Impérial et le Gouvernement Royal au sujet de la modification de la Convention commerciale et du protocole final de 1895 vous avez bien voulu me communiquer que le Gouvernement portugais renonce à son intention de relever les droits sur le pétrole russe dans les conditions énoncées dans le No. 3 du protocole final de la Convention commerciale de 1895, en échange de la renonciation de la part du Gouvernement russe aux droits d'entrée en Portugal de la morue de toute sorte inscrits dans le Tarif (B) annexé à la même Convention. Vous ajoutiez que par conséquent seront appliqués les droits d'après le tarif général portugais à l'entrée en Portugal de la morue de toute sorte qui ne sera pas en cours de route au moment de la publication à Lisbonne de l'avis officiel concernant la présente modification. En réponse à cette communication, j'ai l'honneur de porter à votre connaissance que le Gouvernement russe renonce aux droits d'entrée en Portugal de la morue de toute sorte inscrits dans le Tarif (B) annexé à la Convention de Commerce de 1895 en échange de la renonciation de la part du Gouvernement portugais à son intention de relever les droits sur le pétrole russe dans les conditions énoncées dans le No. 3 du protocole final de la Convention susmentionnée. Par conséquent, seront appliqués les droits d'après le tarif général portugais à l'entrée en Portugal de la morue de toute sorte qui ne sera pas en cours de route au moment de la publication à Lisbonne de l'avis officiel concernant la présente modification. Recevez, &c. ISVOLSKY. TREATY OF ARBITRATION between Portugal and Spain.-Signed at Lisbon, May 31, 1904. [Ratifications exchanged at Lisbon, February 27, 1909.] (Translation.) THE Government of His Most Faithful Majesty and the Government of His Catholic Majesty, Signatories of the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, signed at The Hague on the 29th July, 1899;* Taking into consideration that by Article XIX of that Convention, the High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves the right of concluding agreements with a view to referring to arbitration all questions which they shall consider possible to submit to such treatment; * Vol. XCI, page 970. Taking into consideration that the cordial sentiments and intentions which mutually inspire the two Peninsular nations are not only of special importance, but contribute to tighten and strengthen the ties of close friendship as well as to confirm and widen the good relations both political and economical which exist between the two countries; Taking into consideration that, with a view to the more effectual attainment of an object so beneficial, all facilities for prompt despatch, recommended in an almost exceptional manner by the community of interests of limitrophe countries, should powerfully assist in the settlement of disputes and local differences which by reason of close neighbourhood may arise; Have authorized the undersigned to conclude the following arrangement : ART. I. Questions of a juridical nature or relating to the interpretation of Treaties at present in force or which shall come into operation between Portugal and Spain, friendly and limitrophe countries, and which it may not have been possible to settle by diplomacy, shall be referred to a Commission, specially appointed for that purpose by previous arrangement, and, in case of no agreement being arrived at within a space of time which shall not exceed one month from the date of the proposal made for the appointment of this Commission, at the instance of one of the High Contracting Parties such questions shall be submitted to the Permanent Court of Arbitration established at The Hague in virtue of the Convention of the 29th June, 1899, provided that the questions referred to do not affect the vital interests, the independence or the honour of the Contracting States and do not concern the interests of another State. II. Whenever it shall be necessary to appoint an Umpire, owing to failure on the part of the members of the Commission mentioned in the preceding Articles, to arrive at an agreement, he shall be selected by the Governments interested from amongst the members of the Permanent Tribunal of The Hague. III. In each individual case, before having recourse to the Commission designated in the preceding Articles or to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the High Contracting Parties shall conclude a special agreement, defining clearly the matter in dispute, the scope of the Powers conferred on the Arbitrator or Arbitrators, and the conditions necessary to be observed in regard to the formation of the Tribunal and the several stages of the arbitral procedure. IV. The present Agreement is concluded for a period of five years dating from the day of the exchange of ratifications and if not denounced by one of the Parties one year previous to the date on which it would otherwise lapse, shall be prolonged for another five years and so on successively. Done in duplicate at Lisbon the 31st May, 1904. WENCESLAU DE SOUSA PEREIRA LIMA |