CHAPTER III.

ARTICLE 15.

Each of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers on the one part and Czecho-Slovakia on the other shall be at liberty to appoint diplomatic representatives to reside in their respective capitals, as well as Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls and Consular agents to reside in the towns and ports of their respective territories.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls and Consular agents, however, shall not enter upon their duties until they have been admitted in the usual manner by the Government of the territory in which they are stationed.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls and Consular agents shall enjoy all the facilities, privileges, exemptions and immunities of every kind which are or shall be granted to consular officers of the most favored nation.

ARTICLE 16.

Pending the establishment of an import tariff by the Czecho-Slovak Government, goods originating in the Allied or Associated States shall not be subject to any higher duties on importation into CzechoSlovakia than the most favorable rates of duty applicable to goods of the same kind under the Austro-Hungarian Customs Tariff on July 1, 1914.

ARTICLE 17.

Czecho-Slovakia undertakes to make no treaty, convention or arrangement and to take no other action which will prevent her from joining in any general agreement for the equitable treatment of the commerce of other States that may be concluded under the auspices of the League of Nations within five years from the coming into force of the present Treaty.

Czecho-Slovakia also undertakes to extend to all the Allied and Associated States any favors or privileges in customs matters which it may grant during the same period of five years to any State with which since August, 1914, the Allied and Associated States have been at war, other than favors or privileges which may be granted under the special customs arrangements provided for in Article 2221 of the Treaty of Peace of even date with Austria.

ARTICLE 18.

Pending the conclusion of the general agreement referred to above, Czecho-Slovakia undertakes to treat on the same footing as national vessels or vessels of the most favored nation the vessels of all the Allied and Associated States which accord similar treatment to Czecho-Slovak vessels.

ARTICLE 19.

Pending the conclusion under the auspices of the League of Nations of a general convention to secure and maintain freedom of communications and of transit, Czecho-Slovakia undertakes to accord

1 See p. 3230.

freedom of transit to persons, goods, vessels, carriages, waggons and mails in transit to or from any Allied or Associated State over Czecho-Slovak territory, and to treat them at least as favourably as the persons, goods, vessels, carriages, waggons and mails respectively of Czecho-Slovak or of any other more favored nationality, origin, importation or ownership as regards facilities, charges, restrictions, and all other matters.

All charges imposed in Czecho-Slovakia on such traffic in transit shall be reasonable having regard to the conditions of the traffic. Goods in transit shall be exempt from all customs or other duties.

Tariffs for transit traffic across Czecho-Slovakia and tariffs between Czecho-Slovakia and any other Allied or Associated Power involving through tickets or waybills shall be established at the request of that Allied or Associated Power.

Freedom of transit will extend to postal, telegraphic and telephonic services.

Provided that no Allied or Associated Power can claim the benefit. of these provisions on behalf of any other part of its territory in which reciprocal treatment is not accorded in respect of the same subject-matter.

If within a period of five years from the coming into force of the present Treaty no general convention as aforesaid shall have been concluded under the auspices of the League of Nations, CzechoSlovakia shall be at liberty at any time thereafter to give twelve months' notice to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations to terminate the obligations of the present Article.

ARTICLE 20.

Czecho-Slovakia undertakes to adhere within twelve months of the coming into force of the present Treaty, to the International Conventions specified in Annex I.

Czecho-Slovakia undertakes to adhere to any new Convention, concluded with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations within five years of the coming into force of the present Treaty, to replace any of the international instruments specified in Annex I.

The Czecho-Slovak Government undertakes within twelve months to notify the Secretary-General of the League of Nations whether or not Czecho-Slovakia desires to adhere to either or both of the International Conventions specified in Annex II.

Until Czecho-Slovakia has adhered to the two Conventions last specified in Annex I, she agrees, on condition of reciprocity, to protect by effective measures the industrial, literary and artistic prop erty of nationals of the Allied and Associated States. In the case of any Allied or Associated State not adhering to the said Conventions Czecho-Slovakia agrees to continue to afford such effective protection on the same conditions until the conclusion of a special bilateral treaty or agreement for that purpose with such Allied or Associated State.

Pending her adhesion to the other Conventions specified in Annex 1. Czecho-Slovakia will secure to the nationals of the Allied and As sociated Powers the advantages to which they would be entitled under the said Conventions.

Czecho-Slovakia further agrees, on condition of reciprocity, to recognize and protect all rights in any industrial, literary or artistic

P

property belonging to the nationals of the Allied and Associated States in force, or which but for the war would have been in force, in any part of her territory. For such purpose she will accord the extensions of time agreed to in Articles 259 and 2601 of the Treaty of Peace with Austria.

ANNEX I.

Postal Conventions.

Conventions and agreements of the Universal Postal Union signed at Vienna, July 4, 1891.

Conventions and agreements of the Postal Union signed at Washington, June 15, 1897.

1906.

Conventions and agreements of the Postal Union signed at Rome, May 26, Telegraphic and Radio-Telegraphic Conventions.

1875.

International Telegraphic Convention signed at St. Petersburg, July 10/22, Regulations and Tariffs drawn up by the International Telegraph Conference of Lisbon, June 11, 1908.

International Radio-Telegraphic Convention, July 5, 1912.

Railway Conventions.

Convention and arrangements signed at Berne on October 14, 1890, September 20, 1893, July 16, 1895, June 16, 1898, and September 19, 1906, and the current supplementary provisions made under those Conventions.

Agreement of May 15, 1886, regarding the sealing of railway trucks subject to customs inspection, and Protocol of May 15, 1907.

Agreement of May 15, 1886, regarding the technical standardisation of railways, as modified on May 18, 1907.

Sanitary Conventions.

Conventions of Paris and Vienna of April 3, 1894, March 19, 1897, and December 3, 1903.

Other Conventions.

Convention of September 26, 1906, for the suppression of night work for

women.

Convention of September 26, 1906, for the suppression of the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches.

Conventions of May 18, 1904, and May 4, 1910, regarding the suppression of the White Slave Traffic.

Convention of May 4, 1910, regarding the suppression of obscene publications. International Convention of Paris of March 20, 1883, as revised at Washington in 1911, for the protection of industrial property.

International Convention of Berne of September 9, 1886, revised at Berlin on November 13, 1908, and completed by the Additional Protocol signed at Berne on March 20, 1914, for the protection of literary and artistic works.

ANNEX II.

Agreement of Madrid of April 14, 1891, for the prevention of false indications of origin on goods, revised at Washington in 1911.

Agreement of Madrid of April 14, 1891, for the international registration of trade-marks, revised at Washington in 1911.

ARTICLE 21.

All rights and privileges accorded by the foregoing Articles to the Allied and Associated States shall be accorded equally to all States Members of the League of Nations.

1 See pp. 3257 and 3258.

The PRESENT TREATY, in French, in English and in Italian, of which the French text shall prevail in case of divergence, shall be ratified. It shall come into force at the same time as the Treaty of Peace with Austria.

The deposit of ratifications shall be made at Paris.

Powers of which the seat of the Government is outside Europe will be entitled merely to inform the Government of the French Republic through their diplomatic representative at Paris that their ratification has been given; in that case they must transmit the instrument of ratification as soon as possible.

A procès-verbal of the deposit of ratifications will be drawn up. The French Government will transmit to all the Signatory Powers a certified copy of the procès-verbal of the deposit of ratifications. In faith whereof the above-named Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Treaty.

Done at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the tenth day of September, one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, in a single copy which will remain deposited in the archives of the French Republic, and of which authenticated copies will be transmitted to each of the Signatory Powers.

FRANCE.

1919.

ASSISTANCE TO FRANCE IN THE EVENT OF UNPROVOKED AGGRESSION BY
GERMANY-AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
UNITED STATES AND

ASSISTANCE TO FRANCE IN THE EVENT OF UNPROVOKED AGGRESSION BY GERMANY.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE, SIGNED AT VERSAILLES JUNE 28, 1919.

Whereas the United States of America and the French Republic are equally animated by the desire to maintain the Peace of the World so happily restored by the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles the 28th day of June, 1919, putting an end to the war begun by the aggression of the German Empire and ended by the defeat of that Power: and.

Whereas the United States of America and the French Republic are fully persuaded that an unprovoked movement of aggression by Germany against France would not only violate both the letter and the spirit of the Treaty of Versailles to which the United States of America and the French Republic are parties, thus exposing France anew to the intolerable burdens of an unprovoked war, but that such aggression on the part of Germany would be and is so regarded by the Treaty of Versailles as a hostile act against all the Powers signatory to that Treaty and as calculated to disturb the Peace of the world by involving inevitably and directly the States of Europe and indirectly, as experience has amply and unfortunately demonstrated, the world at large; and,

Whereas the United States of America and the French Republic fear that the stipulations relating to the left bank of the Rhine contained in said Treaty of Versailles may not at first provide adequate security and protection to France on the one hand and the United States of America as one of the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles on the other;