*

conclue le 31 Mai, 1865, entre Sa Majesté le Sultan de l'Empire du Maroc, d'une part, et Sa Majesté l'Empereur d'Autriche, Roi de Hongrie et de Bohême, Sa Majesté le Roi des Belges, Sa Majesté la Reine d'Espagne, son Excellence le Président de la République des États-Unis d'Amérique, Sa Majesté l'Empereur des Français, Sa Majesté la Reine du Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande, Sa Majesté le Roi d'Italie, Sa Majesté le Roi des PaysBas, Sa Majesté le Roi de Portugal et des Algarves, et Sa Majesté le Roi de Suède et de Norvège, d'autre part, Convention à laquelle Sa Majesté l'Empereur d'Allemagne a adhéré en Mars 1878.

Il ajoute que le Gouvernement Impérial de Russie ayant consenti à allouer les fonds nécessaires à ce sujet pour l'année bugdétaire 1899, la participation de la Russie aux obligations de la Convention datera du 1er Janvier, 1899.

Si Mohamed Torres, ainsi que les Représentants des autres Puissances Signatoires de la Convention, tous autorisés d'avance par leurs Gouvernements respectifs, déclarent accepter, au nom de ceux-ci, l'adhésion de la Russie à la Convention du 31 Mai, 1865, et invitent le Représentant de l'Empire Russe à siéger à l'avenir avec eux dans le Conseil International de Surveillance et d'Entretien du Phare du Cap-Spartel, avec les mêmes droits et devoirs qu'euxmêmes.

En foi de quoi le Représentant de Sa Majesté Chérifienne et les Représentants des Puissances précitées ont signé le présent procèsverbal en treize exemplaires identiques.

VON PILGRIM BALTAZZI.

COMTE HENRI DE CRENNEVILLE.

ED. ANSPACH.

EMILIO DE OJEDA.

LUDLOW LILLY.

LA MARTINIÈRE.

HERBERT E. WHITE.

G. MALMUSI.

G. DE QUILLINAN.

B. BACHERACHT.

(Signature in Arabic characters of Sid Hadj Mohamed-ben-Elarbi Torres.)

* Vol. LV,
page 16.

CONVENTION between Great Britain and the Netherlands, providing that Submarine Cables connecting the two Countries shall be their Joint Property.*—Signed at the Hague, April 5, 1898.

[Ratifications exchanged at the Hague, December 13, 1898.]

(To which is annexed an Agreement between the Postal Administrations of the two countries respecting the telegraphic correspondence over the direct submarine cables,* signed at London, February 13, 1899; and at the Hague, March 13, 1899.)

HER Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, and Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, and in her name Her Majesty the Queen-Regent of the Kingdom, desiring that the two submarine telegraph cables which connect the coasts of the two countries, as well as any new submarine cables, whether for telegraphic or telephonic purposes, shall in the future be the joint property of the two countries, having resolved to enter into a Convention for the purpose, have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries:

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, Mr. Henry Howard, Her Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of the Netherlands;

And Her Majesty the Queen-Regent of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, M. Willem Hendrik de Beaufort, Minister of Foreign Affairs;

Who, after having delivered their full powers, which were found to be in good and due form, agreed to the following provisions :

ART. I. The Agreement of the 15th March, 1880,† as modified by the Agreement of the 30th March, 1889, is cancelled by this present Convention, and replaced by the following stipulations.

II. The submarine cables existing and to be laid between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Netherlands shall be the joint property of the two countries.

Consequently no concession shall be granted for the establishment and working of submarine cables between the British and Netherland coasts without mutual consent of both countries.

Signed also in the Dutch language.

+ Vol. LXXI, page 22,

Vol. LXXXI, page 29,

III. The Netherlands shall acquire one-half of the property in the two existing submarine cables from Lowestoft and Benacre to Zandvoort, at present the property of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

For that joint ownership the Netherlands shall pay to the United Kingdom the sum of 14,9077. 10s.

The payment shall be effected as soon as the exchange of the ratifications shall have taken place, with an additional payment of 3 per cent. per annum from the 1st January, 1897, until the day on which the payment shall take place.

IV. If in the interests of the correspondence the laying of new or additional submarine cables should become necessary, the conditions and manner of purchase and laying shall be regulated between the two State Telegraph Administrations by mutual agreement.

The expense shall be borne in equal shares by the two countries. V. The cost of the proper maintenance of the British-Netherland submarine cables shall be borne in equal shares by the two countries.

VI. The State Telegraph Administrations of the two countries shall regulate by mutual agreement and in the best interests of the correspondence the mode of using the submarine cables.

The working of the submarine cables in each of the two countries shall be in the hands of the officials of the State Telegraph Administrations without any intermediary.

The land-wires necessary for the connection of the submarine cables with the inland system shall be constructed and maintained at the expense of each country separately.

Each country shall at its own expense provide and maintain a suitable hut at the spot where the submarine cables end and the landlines commence, and each hut shall be equipped with all neccssary instruments and apparatus.

VII. The cable rates in respect of all telegrams exchanged in direct correspondence between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands or in transit over the British-Netherland submarine cables shali be equally divided between the two countries.

VIII. The correspondence between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands shall take place over the direct submarine cables as long as they can be used, unless the sender has specially prescribed another route.

IX. After the ratifications shall have been exchanged, the present Convention shall be considered to have come into force on the 1st. January, 1897.

In case one of the High Contracting Parties should signify its wish to do so, the present Convention may be revised. In this case

the revised stipulations shall come into force six months after those stipulations shall have been agreed to.

The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible The exchange of the ratifications shall then be effected without delay.

In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention, and have affixed thereto their seals.

Done in duplicate at the Hague, the 5th of April, 1898.

(L.S.) HENRY HOWARD.
(L.S.) W. H. DE BEAUFORT.

Annex.

Agreement concerning the Telegraphic Correspondence between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Netherlands, over the Direct Submarine Cables.-Signed at London, February 13, 1899; and at the Hague, March 13, 1899.

22nd

By virtue of Article XVII of the International Telegraph Convention of St. Petersburgh of the 10th July, 1875, the Undersigned, subject to the approval of the respective Governments, if required, have agreed as follows:

ART. I. Until otherwise mutually agreed, the charge for ordinary telegrams exchanged between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Netherlands, shall be fixed uniformly by word, viz., in the United Kingdom at 2d., in the Netherlands at 10 cents, with a minimum of 10d. per telegram in the United Kingdom and 50 cents in the Netherlands.

From the amount per word collected by the State Telegraph Administration of each country of origin, there shall be deducted, from the 1st January, 1897, 10 centimes as cable rate to be equally divided between the two State Telegraph Administrations; 6 centimes, as terminal rate for the United Kingdom, and 4 centimes as terminal rate for the Netherlands.

Each State Telegraph Administration shall retain the entire sum which it shall have collected, including the charges for reply-paid telegrams and other necessary charges.

Nevertheless the United Kingdom shall credit the Netherlands with 9 centimes per word in respect of British - Netherland telegrams transmitted to the Netherlands, and the Netherlands shall credit the United Kingdom with 11 centimes per word in respect of British-Netherland telegrams transmitted to the United Kingdom.

The minimum charge of 10d. or 50 cents per telegram shall be

* Vol. LXVI, page 19.

divided in the proportion of 11 cents for the United Kingdom and 9 cents for the Netherlands.

II. British-Netherland telegrams which, at the request of the sender, are diverted from the direct route, shall be subject to the rates and provisions of the International Telegraph Convention of St. Petersburgh and of the Service Regulations thereto annexed.

British-Netherland telegrams which, in consequence of interruption of the direct route between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, are sent over the system of any other Administration, shall not be subjected to any additional charge, the cost of transit over the system of such other Administration being borne by the State Telegraph Administration whose land lines are interrupted, and by the British and Netherland Administration jointly in case the submarine cables shall be interrupted.

Nothing in this Article is to be interpreted as affecting the liberty of the United Kingdom to enter into arrangements with France, Belgium, or Germany, or all of them, for the due apportionment of the moneys derived from the cable rates on messages passing over the British-French, British-Belgian, and BritishGerman cables, or as nullifying any right, which, by reason of her ownership in these cables, she may herself possess, to receive a portion, or the whole, of the moneys in question.

III. The provisions of the International Telegraph Convention of St. Petersburgh and of the Service Regulations thereto annexed, as already revised or as they may be revised by future International Conferences, are declared applicable to the intercourse between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in all that is not regulated by the present Agreement.

IV. The United Kingdom charges itself at the joint expense of the two countries with the care of the proper maintenance of the cables, and shall for this purpose keep at its disposal a suitable cableship and the necessary cable.

As hire of the cable-ship, including the cost of the crew, and of all costs of damage or other marine casualties to the ship, the Netherlands shall pay to the United Kingdom, during the time that the ship is in commission for the repair of submarine cables, 377. 108. per day, or such higher sum as may be mutually agreed upon.

Moreover the two countries shall pay in equal shares the further cost of cable, cable stores, coals, mooring, unmooring, pilotage, and dues, &c.

If at any time it should be necessary to hire a cable-ship in consequence of the cable-ship belonging to the British State Telegraph Administration not being available, the cost of hiring shall be borne equally by the two countries.