bring them before a special civil Court, the case shall, at the request of the Transfer Offices, be dealt with by ordinary procedure, if the offence is not punishable by imprisonment for a period exceeding three months or a fine exceeding 3,000 M. Before pronouncing sentence in such cases, the special Court shall give the Transfer Office an opportunity of submitting a request for the application of the ordinary procedure.

IX. The German officials shall enjoy the full protection of the Polish Government.

X. During their period of service with the Polish Administration, German officials shall draw in Polish marks the salaries due to them in accordance with German regulations, provided that the salaries laid down by Polish regulations are not higher in Polish currency; the difference in the exchange shall not be taken into account. These officials shall be placed on the same footing as the officials who are able to speak and write Polish. The two Administrations, in conjunction with the Transfer Offices and the Officials' Committees, shall decide as to grading and salary of these officials.

The Polish Government shall pay an allowance of 25 per cent. of their salary to officials whose families have left the ceded territories, and who, therefore, have to keep up a double establishment. The payment of salaries provided for under § 1 and 2 shall be made by the Polish Treasury in advance, monthly or quarterly, according to the regulations applicable in each individual case.

XI. The Polish Government shall indemnify, to the full amount of damage estimated at the time, German officials in the Polish service, as well as members of their families or households, for all injuries to property, rights, life, limb, or health, which result from, or, since the occupation of the ceded territory, have resulted from riots or disturbances, in consequence of open violence or of legal measures taken to repress it. The right to compensation and the amount of damages shall be determined by the Prussian law in force when the present Convention comes into effect.

XII. In so far as, according to German law, there is any State liability for accidents to officials, Poland shall take the place of the German Reich or of Prussia so long as the German officials remain in the service of Poland.

XIII. German officials who, owing to the termination of their appointments, leave their place of residence within the time allowed for withdrawal in Article V, § 4, shall have the right to give up on two weeks' notice any dwelling leased by them.

XIV. The provisions of the present Convention apply equally to clergymen, ministers of religion, church officials,

public school teachers, subordinate State officials and employees of the Reich, State and Municipal Authorities.

XV. The German officials shall suffer no disadvantages owing to ignorance of the Polish language or insufficient knowledge of that language for the discharge of their duties.

XVI. With regard to the administration of law and justice, the following special provisions shall apply:

The period for continuance in office laid down in Article III, § 1, comes to an end in the case of judicial officials in the territory now occupied by the Polish Authorities on the 31st March, 1920, at latest. In territory as yet unoccupied, but falling to Poland under the Treaty of Peace, the period of office comes to an end on military evacuation and occupation by Poland, provided the evacuation and occupation take place after the 31st March, 1920; otherwise it ends on that date.

During the period of transition it is understood, with regard to judicial organisations and jurisdiction, that the Treaty of Peace shall not come into force before the 1st January, 1920. In so far as the Reich Court is competent to try and decide criminal cases in the first instance, it shall be replaced by the competent Local Court of Assize, whose decision shall be subject to appeal. During the period of transition, the Courts shall issue judgments in virtue of the present Convention.

All Statutes and Decrees affecting substantive law and procedure shall remain in force, in so far as they are not altered by Polish Statutes and Decrees. The latter, together with all other Polish Statutes and Decrees enacted for the occupied territory, shall be extended to include the territory hitherto unoccupied. As regards legal procedure in respect of appeals, offences against Polish laws shall be treated in the same way as offences against laws of the German Reich.

Prussian judicial officials who remain in office in the ceded territory shall be subject to the supervision of the Prussian Administration of Justice, which shall act in agreement with the Polish Administration of Justice.

In so far as no contrary provision is contained in this Article, the provisions of the present Convention, specially those regarding exemption and liquidation, shall apply to judicial officials.

XVII. This Convention shall be ratified,* and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Berlin as soon as possible.

The Convention shall come into force simultaneously with the Treaty of Peace.t

+ This stipulation was made by a Supplementary Convention, signed at Paris, January 9, 1920.

In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have signed this Convention and affixed their seals thereto.

Done in duplicate at Berlin on the 9th November, 1919. (L.S.) VON SIMSON.

The undersigned Plenipotentiaries of the German Government and of the Polish Government, viz. :

For the German Government: Herr Ernst von Simson, Head of a Ministerial Department, Wirklicher Geheimer Legationsrat (Councillor of Legation), and Dr. Edgar Loehrs, Privy Councillor and Reporting Councillor (Vortragender Rat);

von

For the Polish Government: Dr. Wladislaw Wroblewski, Under-Secretary of State, and Dr. Zygmunt Seyda, Under-Secretary of State;

On signing the Convention regarding the provisional retention in their offices of the German officials in the ceded territories, make the following declarations:

1. Both Parties are agreed that the question of the rights of the persons specified in Article XIV and the conditions of their employment shall in the near future be considered by special negotiations.

2. In view of the apparent anxiety existing among German officials in the ceded territories, the Polish Government expressly undertakes that under no circumstances will Poland intern such officials or infringe their personal freedom by any other administrative means.

3. The German officials in office in the territory already occupied by Poland shall receive from the 1st October, 1919, salaries on the scale laid down in Article X, § 1, section 1, of the present Convention. Officials who are not yet in receipt of salaries of this amount shall at once be paid the difference for the period from the 1st October to the 31st December, 1919. The difference, for the period from the 1st April to the 1st October, 1919, between the German and Prussian salaries, on the one hand, and the higher Polish salaries on the other, shall be paid to the officials in two instalments, the first on the 15th January, 1920, and the second on the 15th April, 1920, provided that the officials are on those dates still in the Polish service. Article X, § 2, of the Convention comes into force at the same time as the Convention itself.

4. The rights specified in §§ 4 and 5 of Article V of the Convention shall be accorded to the wives of the officials, to the members of officials' families included in the households

on the 15th October, 1919, and to persons belonging to their household staff at that date.

This Protocol shall, without special confirmation, be considered as approved by both Governments as from the exchange of ratifications of the Convention.

In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries of both Parties have signed this Protocol and affixed their seals thereto.

Done in duplicate at Berlin on the 9th November, 1919. (L.S.) VON SIMSON.

(L.S.)

LOEHRS.

PROTOCOL between Germany and Poland giving effect to the Agreement concerning the Exchange of Prisoners.Berlin, November 23, 1920.

(Translation.*)

THE Undersigned,

For the German Government: Councillor von Kessler (Wirklicher Legationsrat und Vortragender Rat), of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs;

For the Polish Government: M. Ignacy Szebeko, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary, Chargé d'Affaires. of the Polish Republic,

Being duly authorised, under instructions from their Governments, which are actuated by a desire to arrive as soon as possible at a settlement of the questions pending with regard to prisoners and to carry out the exchange of prisoners on the broadest possible basis, have agreed as follows:

1. Any nationals arrested on the territory of one of the Contracting Parties and belonging to the other Contracting Party shall, in accordance with the general legal regulations in force, be brought before the competent magistrate immediately after arrest. If they reside in their native country, they shall be returned to that country by the routes indicated in paragraph 3, immediately after having been released by the authorities examining the case, or after having served their legal sentence.

2. The arrangements regarding prisoners taken by the two Governments shall be unified. All negotiations with reference to this matter shall be carried on in Berlin between a Representative of the Foreign Office and a Representative of the Polish Legation, and in Posen between a Representative of

"League of Nations Treaty Series." No. 82. Signed in the German and Polish languages. [CXIV]

3 F

the German Consulate and a special Representative of the German Consulate and a special Representative of the Polish Government. The arrangement of details shall be left in the hands of these Representatives.

3. All prisoners to be exchanged shall be collected on the German side at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, and, as regards the parts of the German Reich east of the corridor, at Marienwerder, and on the Polish side at Posen. German nationals who are imprisoned in Poland and whose place of abode is situated in the districts east of the corridor, shall be sent from Poland, not viâ Bentschen, but viâ Garnsee.

4. Lists shall be kept with regard to the exchange and despatch of prisoners; these lists shall be forwarded to the competent authorities of the of the concentration depots at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder or Posen.

Should it be deemed desirable, for reasons of expediency, and in exceptional cases, not to exchange the prisoners to be despatched through the concentration depots, but to bring them to the frontier by the shortest route, the Representative of the other Contracting Party, named in paragraph 2, shall be given due notice of such action, in order that the competent frontier post of this Contracting Party may be informed of the despatch of the prisoners and may be in a position to take charge of them. This act shall take place on receipt of an acknowledgment, which shall be forwarded in the case of the despatch of Polish prisoners to the concentration depot at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder and in the case of German prisoners to the concentration depot at Posen.

Prisoners still awaiting despatch in accordance with the foregoing arrangements shall be forthwith exchanged. It is hereby agreed that both Parties renounce the principle of a man for man exchange.

5. The Agreement put into force by this Protocol shall be valid for a period of six months, dating from the day on which the Protocol is signed; notice of its denunciation may be given one month before the expiration of this period. If neither of the Contracting Parties gives notice of the denunciation of this Agreement, it shall automatically continue in force from month to month.

Done in German and Polish.
Berlin, the 23rd November, 1920.

V. KESSLER,

Counsellor of Legation.

IGNACY SZEBEKO,

Minister for Poland.