1477. ARTICLE II.

Consular Officers shall receive, after presenting their commissions. and according to the formalities established in the respective countries. the exequatur required for the exercise of their functions, which shall be furnished to them free of cost; and on presentation of this document they shall be admitted by all the authorities of their place of residence to the enjoyment of the rights, prerogatives, and immunities, granted them by this convention.

1478. ARTICLE III.

Consular Officers, citizens of the State by which they were appointed, shall be exempt from arrest or imprisonment in civil cases and from preliminary arrest in penal cases, except in the case of offenses which the local law qualifies as crimes and punishes as such, and they shall be exempt from military billetings, and from the performance of service in the army, in the militia, or national guard, and in the navy.

The aforesaid Consular Officers shall be exempt from all national, State, or municipal taxes imposed upon persons, either in the nature of capitation tax or in respect to their property, unless such taxes become due on account of the possession of real estate or for interest on capital invested in the State in which they reside. If they are engaged in trade, manufactures, or commerce, they shall not enjoy such exemption, but shall be obliged to pay the same taxes as are paid by other foreigners under similar circumstances.

1479. ARTICLE IV.

Consular Officers, citizens of the State which appointed them, and who are not engaged in trade, professional business, or any kind of manufactures, shall not be obliged to appear as witnesses before the courts of the country in which they reside. If their testimony should be neces sary, they shall be requested in writing to appear in court, and in case of impediment their written deposition shall be requested, or it shall be received viva voce at their residence or office.

It shall be the duty of the aforementioned Consular Officers to comply with such request without unnecessary delay.

In all the criminal cases contemplated by the VIth article of the amendments of the Constitution of the United States, by virtue of which the right is guaranteed to persons charged with crimes of obtaining

witnesses in their favor, Consular Officers shall be required to appear, all possible regard being paid to their dignity and to the duties of their office.

Consuls of the United States in Italy shall receive the same treatment in similar cases.

1480. ARTICLE V.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents may place over the outer door of their office the arms of their nation with this inscription: Consulate or Vice-Consulate or Consular Agency of the United States or of Italy.

They may also hoist the flag of their country over the house in which the Consular Office is, provided they do not reside in the capital in which the legation of their country is established.

1481. ARTICLE VI.

The Consular Offices shall be at all times inviolable. The local authorities shall not be allowed to enter them under any pretext, nor shall they in any case examine or sequestrate the papers therein deposited. These offices, however, shall never serve as places of asylum.

When the Consular Officer is engaged in trade, professional business, or manufacturers, the papers relating to the business of the Consulate must be kept separate.

1482. ARTICLE VII.

In case of death, incapacity, or absence of the Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, their Chancellors and Secretaries, whose official character shall have been previously announced to the Department of State at Washington, or to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Italy, shall be permitted to discharge their functions ad interim, and they shall enjoy, while thus acting, the same rights, prerogatives, and immunities as the officers whose places they fill, on the condition and with the reserves prescribed for those offices.

1483. ARTICLE VIII.

Vice-Consuls or Consular Agents may be appointed by the respective Governments or by the Consuls-General or Consuls, with the approval

1449. ARTICLE VII.

Consuls-General and Consuls may, with the approbation of their respective Governments, appoint Vice-Consuls and Consular Agents in the cities, ports, and places within their Consular jurisdiction. These officers may be citizens of Germany, of the United States, or any other country. They shall be furnished with a commission by the Consul who appoints them and under whose orders they are to act, or by the Government of the country which he represents. They shall enjoy the privileges stipulated for Consular Officers in this convention, subject to the exceptions specified in Article III.

1450. ARTICLE VIII.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall have the right to apply to the authorities of the respective countries, whether federal or local, judicial or executive, within the extent of their Consular District, for the redress of any infraction of the treaties and conventions existing between the two countries, or of international law; to ask information of said authorities, and to address said authorities to the end of protecting the rights and interests of their countrymen, especially in cases of the absence of the latter; in which cases such Consuls, etc., shall be presumed to be their legal representatives. If due notice should not be taken of such application, the Consular Offi cers aforesaid, in he absence of a Diplomatic Agent of their country, may apply directly to the Government of the country where they reside.

1451. ARTICLE IX.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents of the two countries, or their Chancellors, shall have the right, conformably to the laws and regulations of their country

1. To take at their office or dwelling, at the residence of the parties, or on board of vessels of their own nation, the depositions of the captains and crews, of passengers on board of them, of merchants, or of any other citizens of their own country.

2. To receive and verify unilateral acts, wills, and bequests of their countrymen, and any and all acts of agreement entered upon between citizens of their own country, and between such citizens and the citizens or other inhabitants of the country where they reside; and also all contracts between the latter, provided they relate to property situated

or to business to be transacted in the territory of the nation by which he said Consular Officers are appointed.

All such acts of agreement and other instruments, and also copies and ranslations thereof, when duly authenticated by such Consul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul, or Consular Agent under his official seal, shall be received by public officials and in courts of justice as legal documents, or as authenticated copies, as the case may be, and shall have the same force and effect as if drawn up or authenticated by competent public officers of one or the other of the two countries.

1452. ARTICLE X.

In case of the death of any citizen of Germany in the United States, or of any citizen of the United States in the German Empire, without having in the country 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 nation to which the deceased belongs of the circumstance, in order that the necessary information may be immediately forwarded to parties interested.

The said Consular Officer shall have the right to appear personally or by delegate in all proceeding on behalf of the absent heirs or creditors, until they are duly represented.

In all successions to inheritances citizens of each of the contracting parties shall pay in the country of the other such duties only as they would be liable to pay if they were citizens of the country in which the property is situated or the judicial administration of the same may be exercised.

1453. ARTICLE XI.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents of the two countries are exclusively charged with the inventorying and the safe-keeping of goods and effects of every kind left by sailors or passengers on ships of their nation, who die either on board ship or on land during the voyage or in the port of destination.

1454. ARTICLE XII.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall be at liberty to go either in person or by proxy on board vessels of their nation admitted to entry and to examine the officers and crews, to examine the ship's papers, to receive declarations concerning their voyage, their destination, and the incidents of the voyage; also to draw up manifests and lists of freight, to facilitate the entry and clearance of their

vessels, and finally to accompany the said officers or crews before the judicial or administrative authorities of the country, to assist them as their interpreters or agents.

The judicial authorities and custom-house officials shall in no case proceed to the examination or search of merchant vessels without having given previous notice to the Consular Officer of the nation to which the said vessels belong, in order to enable the said Consular Officers to be present.

They shall also give due notice to the said Consular Officers in order to enable them to be present at any depositions or statements to be made in courts of law or before local magistrates, by officers or persons belonging to the crew, thus to prevent errors or false interpretations which might impede the correct administration of justice. The notice to Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents shall name the hour fixed for such proceedings. Upon the non-appearance of the said officers or their representatives, the case may be proceeded with in their absence.

1455. ARTICLE XIII.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents shall have exclusive charge of the internal order of the merchant-vessels of their nation, and shall have the exclusive power to take cognizance of and to determine differences of every kind which may arise, either at sea or in port, between the captains, officers, and crews, and specially in reference to wages and the execution of mutual contracts. Neither any court or authority shall, on any pretext, interfere in these differences, except in cases where the differences on board ship are of a nature to disturb the peace and public order in port, or on shore, or when persons other than the officers and crew of the vessel are parties to the disturbance.

Except as aforesaid, the local authorities shall confine themselves to the rendering of efficient aid to the Consuls, when they may ask it in order to arrest and hold all persons, whose names are borne on the ship's articles, and whom they may deem it necessary to detain. Those persons shall be arrested at the sole request of the Consuls, addressed in writing to the local authorities and supported by an official extract from the register of the ship or the list of the crew, and shall be held, during the whole time of their stay in the port, at the disposal of the Consuls. Their release shall be granted only at the request of the Consuls, made in writing.

The expenses of the arrest and detention of those persons shall be paid by the Consuls.