with the arrest and detention of members of crews of foreign vessels of war and merchant-vessels shall be rendered by a Public Prosecutor at the request of the Consular officer concerned.

2. A Public Prosecutor may not comply with a request for assistance in connection with arrest or detention in the following

cases:

(1.) When the person to be arrested or detained is a subject of the Empire';

(2.) When the person to be arrested or detained is under prosecution or undergoing punishment for an offence punishable as a crime or misdemeanour in the Empire;

(3.) When a further request is made in connection with the same affair against a member of the crew of a vessel of war or a merchant-vessel who has already been set at liberty in accordance with Article 8;

(4.) When the Consular officer has not accompanied his written request for assistance by a proper extract of the vessel's register and of the Articles of the vessel of war or merchant-vessel, or other official document sufficient to prove that the person is a member of the crew;

(5.) When the Consular officer has not guaranteed the payment of expenses in connection with the assistance to be rendered.

3. When a Public Prosecutor recognizes that a request made by a Consular officer for assistance in connection with arrest or detention is proper, he shall immediately take the necessary steps.

4. When a Public Prosecutor has to order the arrest of the member of the crew of a vessel of war or a merchant-vessel, he shall issue a warrant of arrest.

5. When the person who has received an order to execute a warrant of arrest has arrested the person indicated by it, he shall deliver him to the Public Prosecutor who issued the warrant.

6. In the case mentioned in the preceding Article, the Public Prosecutor shall immediately examine the person, and, when he recognizes that there is no doubt of his identity, he shall hand him over to the Consular officer concerned.

7. When the Consular officer requests that the member of the crew of a vessel of war or merchant-vessel who has been arrested be kept in detention, the Public Prosecutor shall cause him to be detained in a prison.

8. When the Consular officer requests that a member of the crew of a vessel of war or a merchant-vessel who is under detention may be set at liberty, or when he does not within six months from the date of arrest make a request for him to be handed over, he shall be set at liberty.

9. The provisions regarding warrants of detention in the Code of

Criminal Procedure shall be observed as far as practicable in connection with the issue and execution of warrants of arrest.

10. The Public Prosecutor shall make a request to the Consular officer concerned for the actual amount of the expenses incurred in connection with the assistance rendered.

11. When a Public Prosecutor has received a request from a Consular officer for assistance in connection with arrest or detention, he shall at once report to the Minister of Justice. When he recognizes that the case is not one in which assistance ought to be rendered, and when the steps taken for rendering assistance have been completed, he shall similarly report.

COMMERCIAL CONVENTION between Germany and Japan.-Signed at Tokió, December 26, 1898.

(Translation.)

THE Government of His Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, and the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, in fulfilment of the second paragraph of section 3 of the Protocol annexed to the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation concluded between Germany and Japan at Berlin on the 4th April, 1896, have agreed as follows:

ART. I. The Tariff annexed to this Convention shall be substituted for the ad valorem Tariff annexed to the aforesaid Protocol of the 4th April, 1896. It shall be subject to all the stipulations contained in section 3 of said Protocol, in so far as these are applicable, and it shall come into force on the 1st January, 1899, corresponding to the 1st day of the 1st month of the 32nd year of Meiji.

II. The present Convention shall have the same duration as the Treaty and Protocol of the 4th April, 1896, to which it is complementary.

In witness whereof the Undersigned, Count Casimir von Leyden, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, and Viscount Aoki Siuzo, His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, having been duly authorized to this effect, have signed the present Convention, and have affixed thereto their seals.

Done in duplicate at Tôkiô this 26th December, 1898, corresponding to the 26th day of the 12th month of the 31st year of Meiji.

(L.S.) GRAF VON LEYDEN

(L.S.) VICOMTE AOKI.

* Vol. LXXXVIII, page 589.