Consular offices shall not be used as places of asylum. No consular officers shall be required to produce official archives in court or testify as to their contents.

Upon the death, incapacity, or absence of a consular officer, having no subordinate consular officer at his post, secretaries or chancellors, whose official character may have previously been made known to the Government of the State where the consular function was exercised, may temporarily exercise the consular function of the deceased or incapacitated or absent consular officer; and while so acting shall enjoy all the rights, prerogatives and immunities granted to the incumbent.

ARTICLE XX

Consular officers, nationals of the State by which they are appointed, "may, within their respective consular districts, address the authorities, National, State, Provincial or Municipal, for the purpose of protecting their countrymen in the enjoyment of their rights accruing by treaty or otherwise. Complaint may be made for the infraction of those rights. Failure upon the part of the proper authorities to grant redress or to accord protection may justify interposition through the diplomatic channel, and in the absence of a diplomatic representative, a consul general or the consular officer stationed at the capital may apply directly to the government of the country.

ARTICLE XXI

Consular officers, in pursuance of the laws of their own country may (a) take, at any appropriate place within their respective districts, the depositions of any occupants of vessels of their own country, or of any national of, or of any person having permanent residence within the territories of, their own country; (b) draw up, attest, certify and authenticate unilateral acts, translations, deeds, and testamentary dispositions of their countrymen, and also contracts to which a countryman is a party; (c) authenticate signatures; (d) draw up, attest, certify and authenticate written instruments of any kind purporting to express or embody the conveyance or encumbrance of property of any kind within the territory of the State by which such officers are appointed, and unilateral acts, deeds, testamentary dispositions and contracts relating to property situated, or business to be transacted, within the territories of the State by which they are appointed.

Instruments and documents thus executed and copies and translations thereof, when duly authenticated by the consular officer, under his official seal, shall be received as evidence in the territories of the Contracting Parties as original documents or authenticated copies, as the

case may be, and shall have the same force and effect as if drawn by and executed before a notary or other public officer duly authorized in the country by which the consular officer was appointed; provided, always, that such documents shall have been drawn and executed in conformity to the laws and regulations of the country where they are designed to take effect.

A consular officer of either High Contracting Party shall within his district have the right to act personally or by delegate in all matters concerning claims of non-support of non-resident minor children against a father resident in the district of the consul's residence and a national of the country represented by the consul, without other authorization, providing that such procedure is not in conflict with local laws.

ARTICLE XXII

In case of the death of a national of either High Contracting Party in the territory of the other without having in the locality of his decease any known heirs or testamentary executors by him appointed, the competent local authorities shall at once inform the nearest consular officer of the State of which the deceased was a national of the fact of the death, in order that necessary information may be forwarded to the parties interested.

In case of the death of a national of either of the High Contracting Parties without will or testament, in the territory of the other High Contracting Party, the consular officer of the State of which the deceased was a national and within whose district the deceased made his home at the time of death, shall, so far as the laws of the country permit and pending the appointment of an administrator and until letters of administration have been granted, be deemed qualified to take charge of the property left by the decedent for the preservation and protection of the same. Such consular officer shall have the right to be appointed as administrator within the discretion of a tribunal or other agency controlling the administration of estates provided the laws of the place where the estate is administered so permit.

In case of the death of a national of either of the High Contracting Parties without will or testament and without any known heirs resident in the country of his decease, the consular officer of the country of which the deceased was a national shall be appointed administrator of the estate of the deceased, provided the regulations of his own Government permit such appointment and provided such appointment is not in conflict with local law and the tribunal having jurisdiction has no special reasons for appointing someone else.

Whenever a consular officer accepts the office of administrator of the estate of a deceased countryman, he subjects himself as such to the

jurisdiction of the tribunal or other agency making the appointment for all necessary purposes to the same extent as a national of the country where he was appointed.

ARTICLE XXIII

A consular officer of either High Contracting Party may, if this is not contrary to the local law, appear personally or by delegate on behalf of non-resident beneficiaries, nationals of the country represented by him before the proper authorities administering workmen's compensation laws and other like statutes, with the same effect as if he held the power of attorney of such beneficiaries to represent them unless such beneficiaries have themselves appeared either in person or by duly authorized representative.

Written notice of the death of their countrymen entitled to benefit by such laws should, whenever practicable, be given by the authorities administering the law to the appropriate consular officer of the country of which the deceased was a national.

A consular officer of either High Contracting Party may on behalf of his non-resident countrymen collect and receipt for their distributive shares derived from estates in process of probate or accruing under the provisions of so-called workmen's compensation laws or other like statutes provided he remits any funds so received through the appropriate agencies of his Government to the proper distributees.

ARTICLE XXIV

A consular officer of either High Contracting Party shall, within his district, have the right to appear personally or by delegate in all matters concerning the administration and distribution of the estate of a deceased person under the jurisdiction of the local authorities for all such heirs or legatees in said estate, either minors or adults, as may be non-residents and nationals of the country represented by the said consular officer with the same effect as if he held their power of attorney to represent them unless such heirs or legatees themselves have appeared either in person or by duly authorized representative.

ARTICLE XXV

A consular officer shall have exclusive jurisdiction over controversies arising out of the internal order of private vessels of his country, and shall alone exercise jurisdiction in cases, wherever arising, between officers and crews, pertaining to the enforcement of discipline on board, provided the vessel and the persons charged with wrongdoing shall have entered a port within his consular district. Such an officer shall

also have jurisdiction over issues concerning the adjustment of wages and the execution of contracts relating thereto provided the local laws so permit.

When an act committed on board of a private vessel under the flag of the State by which the consular officer has been appointed and within the territorial waters of the State to which he has been appointed constitutes a crime according to the laws of that State, subjecting the person guilty thereof to punishment as a criminal, the consular officer shall not exercise jurisdiction except in so far as he is permitted to do so by the local law.

A consular officer may freely invoke the assistance of the local police authorities in any matter pertaining to the maintenance of internal order on board of a vessel under the flag of his country within the territorial waters of the State to which he is appointed, and upon such a request the requisite assistance shall be given.

A consular officer may appear with the officers and crews of vessels under the flag of his country before the judicial authorities of the State to which he is appointed to render assistance as an interpreter or agent.

ARTICLE XXVI

A consular officer of either High Contracting Party shall have the right to inspect within the ports of the other High Contracting Party within his consunlar district, the private vessels of any flag destined or about to clear for ports of the country appointing him in order to observe the sanitary conditions and measures taken on board such vessels, and to be enabled thereby to execute intelligently bills of health and other documents required by the laws of his country, and to inform his Government concerning the extent to which its sanitary regulations have been observed at ports of departure by vessels destined to its ports, with a view to facilitating entry of such vessels therein.

ARTICLE XXVII

All proceedings relative to the salvage of vessels of either High Contracting Party wrecked upon the coasts of the other shall be directed by the consular officer of the country to which the vessel belongs and within whose district the wreck may have occurred. Pending the arrival of such officer, who shall be immediately informed of the occurrence, the local authorities shall take all necessary measures for the protection of persons and the preservation of wrecked property. The local authorities shall not otherwise interfere than for the maintenance of order, the protection of the interests of the salvors, if these do not belong to the crews that have been wrecked, and to carry into effect the arrangements made for the entry and exportation of the mer

chandise saved. It is understood that such merchandise is not to be subjected to any custom house charges, unless it be intended for consumption in the country where the wreck may have taken place.

The intervention of the local authorities in these different cases shall occasion no expense of any kind, except such as may be caused by the operations of salvage and the preservation of the goods saved, together with such as would be incurred under similar circumstances by vessels of the nation.

ARTICLE XXVIII

Subject to any limitation or exception hereinabove set forth, or hereafter to be agreed upon, the territories of the High Contracting Parties to which the provisions of this Treaty extend shall be understood to comprise all areas of land, water, and air over which the Parties respectively claim and exercise dominion as sovereign thereof, except the Panama Canal Zone.

ARTICLE XXIX

The Polish Government which is entrusted with the conduct of the foreign affairs of the Free City of Danzig under Article 104 of the Treaty of Versailles 16 and Articles 2 and 6 of the Treaty signed in Paris on November 9, 1920, between Poland and the Free City of Danzig," reserves hereby the right to declare that the Free City of Danzig is a Contracting Party to this Treaty and that it assumes the obligations and acquires the rights laid down therein.

This reservation does not relate to those stipulations of the Treaty which the Republic of Poland has accepted with regard to the Free City in accordance with the Treaty rights conferred on Poland.

ARTICLE XXX

The present Treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged at Warsaw. The Treaty shall take effect in all its provisions thirty days from the date of the exchange of ratifications and shall remain in full force for the term of one year thereafter.

If within six months before the expiration of the aforesaid period of one year neither High Contracting Party notifies to the other an intention of modifying by change or omission, any of the provisions of any of the Articles in this Treaty or of terminating it upon the expiration of the aforesaid period, the Treaty shall remain in full force and effect after the aforesaid period and until six months from

"Treaties, Conventions, etc., 1910-1923, vol.ш, pp. 3329, 3385. "British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cxIII, p. 965.