PROTOCOL signed by the Representatives of the United States and Venezuela, submitting to Arbitration Claims of United States citizens against Venezuela.-Signed at Washington, February 17, 1903.

THE United States of America and the Republic of Venezuela, through their Representatives, John Hay, Secretary of State of the United States of America, and Herbert W. Bowen, the Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Venezuela, have agreed upon and signed the following Protocol :—

ART. I. All claims owned by citizens of the United States of America against the Republic of Venezuela which have not been settled by diplomatic agreement or by arbitration between the two Governments, and which shall have been presented to the Commission hereinafter named by the Department of State of the United States or its Legation at Caracas, shall be examined and decided by a mixed Commission, which shall sit at Carácas, and which shall consist of two members, one of whom is to be appointed by the President of the United States and the other by the President of Venezuela.

It is agreed that an Umpire may be named by the Queen of the Netherlands. If either of said Commissioners or the Umpire should fail or cease to act, his successor shall be appointed forthwith in the same manner as his predecessor. Said Commissioners and Umpire are to be appointed before the 1st day of May, 1903.

The Commissioners and the Umpire shall meet in the City of Caracas on the 1st day of June, 1903. The Umpire shall preside over their deliberations and shall be competent to decide any question on which the Commissioners disagree. Before assuming the functions of their office the Commissioners and the Umpire shall take solemn oath carefully to examine and impartially decide, according to justice and the provisions of this Convention, all claims submitted to them, and such oaths shall be entered on the record of their proceedings. The Commissioners, or in case of their disagreement the Umpire, shall decide all claims upon a basis of absolute equity, without regard to objections of a technical nature, or of the provisions of local legislation.

The decisions of the Commission, and in the event of their disagreement those of the Umpire, shall be final and conclusive They shall be in writing. All awards shall be made payable in United States gold, or its equivalent in silver.

II. The Commissioners, or Umpire, as the case may be, shall investigate and decide said claims upon such evidence or information only as shall be furnished by or on behalf of the respective Governments. They shall be bound to receive and consider all written documents or statements which may be presented to them by or on behalf of the respective Governments in support

of or in answer to any claim, and to hear oral or written arguments made by the Agent of each Government on every claim. In case of their failure to agree in opinion upon any individual claim, the Umpire shall decide.

Every claim shall be formally presented to the Commissioners within thirty days from the day of their first meeting, unless the Commissioners or the Umpire in any case extend the period for presenting the claim not exceeding three months longer. The Commissioners shall be bound to examine and decide upon every claim within six months from the day of its first formal presentation, and in case of their disagreement, the Umpire shall examine and decide within a corresponding period from the date of such disagreement.

III. The Commissioners and the Umpire shall keep an accurate record of their proceedings. For that purpose, each Commissioner shall appoint a secretary versed in the language of both countries, to assist them in the transaction of the business of the Commission. Except as herein stipulated, all questions of procedure shall be left to the determination of the Commission, or, in case of their disagreement, to the Umpire.

IV. Reasonable compensation to the Commissioners and to the Umpire for their services and expenses, and the other expenses of said arbitration, are to be paid in equal moieties by the Contracting Parties.

V. In order to pay the total amount of the claims to be adjudicated as aforesaid, and other claims of citizens or subjects of other nations, the Government of Venezuela shall set apart for this purpose, and alienate to no other purpose, beginning with the month of March 1903, 30 per cent. in monthly payments of the customs revenues of La Guayra and Puerto Cabello, and the payments thus set aside shall be divided and distributed in conformity with the decision of the Hague Tribunal.

In case of the failure to carry out the above agreement, Belgian officials shall be placed in charge of the customs of the two ports, and shall administer them until the liabilities of the Venezuelan Government in respect of the above claims shall have been discharged. The reference of the question above stated to the Hague Tribunal will be the subject of a separate protocol.

VI. All existing and unsatisfied awards in favour of citizens of the United States shall be promptly paid, according to the terms of the respective awards.

JOHN HAY.

HERBERT W. BOWEN.

EXCHANGE OF NOTES between the British and Swiss Governments, recording the Accession of Venezuela from July 8, 1907, to the Convention signed at Geneva, July 6, 1906, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field-London, August 17 and 30, 1907.

(No. 1.)-M. Probst to Sir Edward Grey.

M. LE SECRÉTAIRE D'ÉTAT,

Légation de Suisse. Londres, le 17 août, 1907.

SUR l'ordre de mon Gouvernement, j'ai l'honneur d'informer votre Excellence que, par note du 8 juillet dernier, le Ministère vénézuélien des Affaires Étrangères a remis au Conseil fédéral suisse l'instrument d'adhésion des États-Unis du Vénézuéla à la Convention de Genève du 6 juillet, 1906, pour l'amélioration du sort des blessés et malades dans les armées en campagne.

Le Vénézuéla ayant adhéré, le 9 juillet, 1894, à la Convention de Genève du 22 août, 1864, son accession à l'Acte du 6 juillet, 1906, ne se trouve subordonné à aucune autre condition.

En vous demandant de vouloir bien consentir à me donner acte de cette notification, je vous, &c.

(No. 2.)-Sir Edward Grey to M. Probst.

PROBST.

SIR, Foreign Office, August 30, 1907. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 17th instant, in which, by direction of the Swiss Government, you inform me that, on the 8th ultimo, the Venezuelan Ministry for Foreign Affairs notified to the Swiss Federal Council the accession of the United States of Venezuela to the Geneva Convention of the 6th July, 1906, for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded and sick in armies in the field. In thanking you for this communication, I have, &c.,

E. GREY.

DECREE by His Highness Seyyid Ali-bin-Hamoud, Sultan of Zanzibar, relating to the Jurisdiction of the British Court in his Dominions.-Zanzibar, November 4, 1908. [No. 7 of 1908.]

In the name of the Most Merciful God!

WHEREAS by the Treaties negotiated with our predecessors several of the friendly Powers were entitled to rights of extraterritoriality, and had established Courts of Justice in our dominions;

And whereas the jurisdiction of the British Court as now established can be extended to other foreigners in pursuance of a Decree issued by us;

And whereas several of the friendly Powers have closed their Courts of Justice in our dominions upon the condition that their citizens or subjects should be amenable to the jurisdiction of the British Court;

And whereas by a Decree of our predecessor Seyyid Ali-binSaïd, dated the 16th December, 1892,* exclusive jurisdiction was granted to Her Britannic Majesty's Agent and Consul-General, or to a person or persons appointed by him, in all suits in which British subjects were plaintiffs or complainants and our subjects or the subjects of other non-Christian Powers not represented by Consuls at Zanzibar were defendants or accused;

And whereas it is desirable to delegate this jurisdiction of the British Court, and to extend it to all cases where foreigners are the plaintiffs or complainants, it is hereby decreed as follows:

1. The British Court shall have jurisdiction in Zanzibar and Pemba over the subjects of His Britannic Majesty, over the subjects and citizens of the friendly Powers whose consular tribunals have been, or shall be, closed and over the subjects of all Christian Powers not represented by Consuls at Zanzibar.

2. The jurisdiction of the British Court shall also extend to all persons who are in the regular service of the subjects and citizens aforesaid.

3. All suits in which the subjects and citizens aforesaid are plaintiffs or complainants shall also be brought in the British Court.

4. The houses, warehouses, and other premises of persons subject to the jurisdiction of the British Court shall not be entered or searched by the officers of our Government without the consent of the occupier, except under a warrant issued by the British Court.

5. The right heretofore possessed by His Britannic Majesty to pass Orders in Council for the good government of all persons within the jurisdiction of the British Court and upon all matters relating to the exercise of its functions shall continue in full force, and any such Orders in Council now in force shall be deemed to have been enacted in pursuance of the authority now granted.

6. All orders issued by the British Court shall be executed by our officers with the utmost diligence.

7. The Governors of our gaols shall receive all persons delivered to them under a warrant issued by the British Court, and hold them in custody in accordance with the terms thereof.

8. In this Decree "the British Court" means the Court established by the Order in Council of His Britannic Majesty called "The Zanzibar Order in Council, 1906,"† or any Order in Council amending or substituted for the same.

* See Vol. LXXXIV, page 190.

+ Vol. XCIX, page 459.

9. This Decree may be cited as "The Jurisdiction Decree, 1908."

Zanzibar, November 4, 1908.

(For His Highness Seyyid Ali-bin-Hamoud),

KHALID-BIN-MAIOMED-BIN-SAID.

Countersigned under the provisions of Article 47 of "The Zanzibar Order in Council, 1906."

BASIL S. CAVE, His Britannic Majesty's

Agent and Consul-General.

DECREE by His Highness Seyyid Ali-bin-Hamoud, Sultan of Zanzibar, relating to the Registration of Documents.Zanzibar, November 4, 1908.

[No. 9 of 1908.]

In the name of the Most Merciful God!

It is hereby decreed as follows:

1. In this Decree—

"Signature and Signed" include and apply to the fixing of a mark.

"Immovable property" includes land, quarries, buildings, rights of way, lights, fisheries, and any other benefit to arise out of land; also things attached to the earth, or permanently fastened to anything which is attached to the earth, but not growing crops or grass.

"Minor" means a person who, according to the personal law to which he is subject, has not attained his majority.

"Representative" includes the guardian of a minor, the wakil of a purdah lady, and the committee or other legal curator of a lunatic or idiot.

2. One Legal Member of Council may appoint one or more persons to exercise the duties of a Registrar of documents at such places, and with such districts, as may be required in our dominions; and the word Registrar" in this Decree means any person so appointed.

3.-(1.) No document executed after the issue of this Decree, purporting or operating to create, declare, assign, limit, or distinguish any right, title, or interest, whether vested or contingent to, in, or over immovable property in our dominions, except such documents as are of a testamentary nature, shall affect any immovable property comprised therein or be received as evidence in any civil proceedings of any transaction affecting that property unless it has been registered as hereinafter prescribed.