able establishments now existing, and the Serb-Croat-Slovene Government shall not refuse any of the necessary facilities for the creation of new religious and charitable establishments guaranteed to other private establishments of this nature. ARTICLE 11. The Serb-Croat-Slovene State agrees that the stipulations in the foregoing Articles, so far as they affect persons belonging to racial, religious or linguistic minorities, constitute obligations of international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations. They shall not be modified without the consent of the Council of the League of Nations. The United States, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan hereby agree not to withhold their assent from any modification in these Articles which is in due form assented to by a majority of the Council of the League of Nations. The Serb-Croat-Slovene State agrees that any Member of the Council of the League of Nations shall have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction, or any danger of infraction, of any of these obligations, and that the Council may thereupon take such action and give such directions as it may deem proper and effective in the circumstances. The Serb-Croat-Slovene State further agrees that any difference of opinion as to questions of law or fact arising out of these Articles between the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and any one of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers or any other Power, a member of the Council of the League of Nations, shall be held to be a dispute of an international character under Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Serb-CroatSlovene State hereby consents that any such dispute shall, if the other party thereto demands, be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The decision of the Permanent Court shall be final and shall have the same force and effect as an award under Article 13 of the Covenant. CHAPTER II. ARTICLE 12. Pending the conclusion of new treaties or conventions, all treaties, conventions, agreements and obligations between Serbia, on the one hand, and any of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers, on the other hand, which were in force on the 1st August, 1914, or which have since been entered into, shall ipso facto be binding upon the Serb-Croat-Slovene State. ARTICLE 13. The Serb-Croat-Slovene State undertakes to make no treaty, convention or arrangement and to take no other action which will prevent her from joining in any general convention 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. The Serb-Croat-Slovene State also undertakes to extend to all the Allied and Associated Powers any favours 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 Powers have been at war, or to any State which in virtue of Article 222 of the Treaty with Austria has special customs arrangements with such States. ARTICLE 14. Pending the conclusion of the general convention referred to above, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State undertakes to treat on the same footing as national vessels or vessels of the most favoured nation the vessels of all the Allied and Associated Powers which accord similar treatment to Serb-Croat-Slovene vessels. As an exception from this provision, the right of the Serb-Croat-Slovene State or of any other Allied or Associated Power to confine its maritime coasting trade to national vessels is expressly reserved. The Allied and Associated Powers further agree not to claim under this Article the benefit of agreements which the States obtaining territory formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy may conclude as regards coasting traffic between the ports of the Adriatic Sea. ARTICLE 15. 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, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State undertakes to accord freedom of transit to persons, goods, vessels, carriages, wagons and mails in transit to or from any Allied or Associated State over Serb-Croat-Slovene territory, including territorial waters, and to treat them at least as favourably as Serb-Croat-Slovene persons, goods, vessels, carriages, wagons and mails respectively or those of any other more favoured nationality, origin, importation or ownership, as regards facilities, charges, restrictions and all other matters. All charges imposed in the territory of the Serb-Croat-Slovene State 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 across the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and tariffs between the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and any Allied or Associated Power involving through tickets or waybills shall be established at the request of the Allied or Associated Power concerned. 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 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, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State 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 this Article. ARTICLE 16. All rights and privileges accorded by the foregoing Articles to the Allied and Associated Powers shall be accorded equally to all States Members of the League of Nations. The present Treaty, in French, in English and in Italian, of which in case of divergence the French text shall prevail, 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. (L.S.) FRANK L. POLK. (L.S.) HENRY WHITE. (L.S.) TASKER H. BLISS. (L.S.) ARTHUR JAMES BALFour. (L.S.) GEO. N. BARNES. (L.S.) A. E. KEMP. (L.S.) THOS. MACKENZIE. (L.S.) K. MATSUI. (L.S.) H. IJUIN. 23 AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BEL- CUBA, FRANCE, JAPAN, NICARAGUA, PANAMA, PO- WITH REGARD TO THE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COST OF LIBERATION AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. SIGNED AT SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE, SEPTEMBER 10, 1919.* A 1 The undersigned, duly authorised by their respective Governments, have agreed on the following provisions : ARTICLE 1. Poland, Roumania, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and the Czecho-Slovak State, as States to which territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is transferred or States arising from the dismemberment of that Monarchy, severally agree to pay, as a contribution towards the expenses of liberating the said territories, sums not exceeding in the aggregate the equivalent of 1,500,000,000 fr. gold, the gold franc being taken as of the weight and fineness of gold as enacted by law on January 1, 1914. ARTICLE 2. The amount of the contribution referred to in Article 1 shall be divided between the said States on the basis of the ratio between the average for the three financial years 1911, 1912 and 1913 of the revenues of the territories acquired by them from the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the revenues of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina being excluded from this calculation. "Treaty Series. No. 14 (1919)." |