of said Governments, in the cities, ports, and places of each Consular District. These agents may be selected from the citizens of the United States, or from Italian citizens or other foreigners, and they shall be furnished with a commission by the Government or by the Consul appointing them under whose orders they are to discharge their functions.

They shall enjoy the privileges provided in this convention for Consular Officers, subject to the exceptions and reservations provided for the same.

1484. ARTICLE IX.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents may have recourse to the authorities of the respective countries within their district, whether federal or local, judicial or executive, for the purpose of complaining of any infraction of the treaties or conventions existing between the United States and Italy, as also in order to defend the rights and interests of their countrymen. If the complaint should not be satisfactorily redressed, the Consular Officer aforesaid, in the absence of a Diplomatic Agent of their country, may apply directly to the Government of the country where they reside.

1485. ARTICLE X.

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, and their Chancellors or Consular Clerks, shall have the right to take in their offices, at the residence of the parties, in their own dwelling, and even on board ship, the depositions of captains and crews of the vessels of their nation, of passengers on board of the same, and of any other citizen or subject of their country.

They shall also have the right to receive at their offices, conformably to the laws and regulations of their country, any contract between citizens or subjects and other inhabitants of the country in which they reside, and also any contract between these latter, provided it relates to real estate situated in the territory of the nation to which the Consular Officer belongs, or to business which is to be transacted in said country.

Copies of papers relative to such contracts and official documents of all kinds, whether originals, copies, or translations, duly authenticated by the Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, and sealed with the seal of office of the Consulate, shall be received as evidence in the United States and Italy.

1486. ARTICLE XI.

(Substituted by treaty concluded February 24, 1881).

The eleventh article of the Consular Convention of May 8, 1878, between the United States of America and Italy, is hereby annulled, and in its place the following article is substituted, namely:

Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall have exclusive charge of the internal order of the merchant vessels of their nation, and shall alone take cognizance of differences which may arise, either at sea or in port, between the captains, officers, and crews, without exception, particularly in reference to the adjustment of wages and the execution of contracts. In case any disorder should happen on board of vessels of either party, in the territorial waters of the other, neither the Federal, State, or municipal authorities or courts in the United States nor any court or authority in Italy, shall on any pretext interfere except when the said disorders are of such a nature as to cause, or be likely to cause, a breach of the peace or serious trouble in the port or on shore; or when, in such trouble or breach of the peace, a person or persons shall be implicated, not forming a part of the crew. In any other case, said Federal, State, or municipal authorities or courts in the United States, or courts or authority in Italy, shall not interfere, but shall render forcible aid to Consular Officers, when they may ask it, to search, arrest, and imprison all persons composing the crew whom they may deem it necessary to confine. Those persons shall be arrested at the sole request of the Consuls addressed in writing to either the Federal, State, or municipal courts or authorities in the United States, or to any court or authority in Italy, and supported by an official extract from the register of the ship or the list of the crew, and the prisoners shall be held, during the whole time of their stay, in the port at the disposal of the Consular Officers. Their release shall be granted at the mere request of such officers made in writing. The expenses of the arrest and detention of those persons shall be paid by the Consular Officers.

1487. ARTICLE XII.

According to the act of Congress of March 5, 1855, to regulate the carriage of passengers in steamships and other vessels, all disputes and questions of any nature that may arise between captains and officers on the

one hand, and passengers on board of vessels on the other, shall be brought to and decided by the circuit or district courts of the United States, to the exclusion of all other courts and authorities.

1488. ARTICLE XIII.

The respective Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents may arrest the officers, seamen, and any other person forming part of the crew of the merchant and war vessels of their nation who have been guilty of or charged with deserting from said vessels, in order to return them to their vessels, or to send them back to their country.

To this effect the Consular Officers of Italy in the United States may apply in writing to either the courts or the Federal, State, or municipal authorities of the United States, and the Consular Officers of the United States may apply to any of the competent authorities in Italy, and make a demand for the deserters, showing by exhibiting the register of the vessel and the crew-list, or other official documents, that the persons claimed really belonged to said crew. Upon such request alone, thus supported, and without the exaction of any oath from the Consular Officers, the deserters not being citizens or subjects of the country in which the demand is made at the time of their shipment shall be given up.

All assistance and necessary aid, moreover, shall be furnished for the search and arrest of said deserters, who shall be placed in the prisons of the country, and kept there at the request and at the expense of the Consular Officer until he finds an opportunity to send them home.

If, however, such an opportunity shall not present itself within the space of three months, counting from the day of the arrest, the deserter shall be set at liberty, nor shall he be again imprisoned for the same

cause.

1489. ARTICLE XIV.

In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, between the owners. freighters, and insurers, all damages suffered at sea by the vessels of the two countries, whether they enter the respective ports voluntarily or are forced by stress of weather or other causes over which the officers have no control, shall be settled by the Consuls-General, Consuls, ViceConsuls, and Consular Agents of the country in which they respectively reside; in case, however, any citizen of the country in which said Consular Officers reside, or subjects of a third power, should be interested

in these damages, and the parties cannot come to an amicable agreement, the competent local authorities shall decide.

490 ARTICLE XV.

All operations relative to the salvage of the United States vessels wrecked upon the coasts of Italy, and of Italian vessels upon the coasts of the United States, shall be directed by the respective Consuls-General, Consuls, and Vice-Consuls of the two countries, and until their arrival by the respective Consular Agents, where Consular Agencies exist.

In places and ports where there is no such agency, the local authorities shall give immediate notice of the shipwreck to the Consul of the district in which the disaster has taken place, and until the arrival of the said Consul they shall take all necessary measures for the protection of persons and the preservation of property.

The local authorities shall intervene only to preserve order, and to protect the interests of the salvors, if they do not belong to the crew of the wrecked vessel, and to secure the execution of the arrangements made for the entry and exportation of the merchandise saved. It is understood that such merchandise is not to be subjected to any customhouse charges, unless it be intended for consumption in the country in which the wreck took place.

1491. ARTICLE XVI.

In case of the death of a citizen of the United States in Italy, or of an Italian citizen in the United States, who has no known heir, or testamentary executor designated by him, the competent local authorities shall give notice of the fact to the Consuls or Consular Agents of the nation to which the deceased belongs, to the end that information may be at once transmitted to the parties interested.

1492. ARTICLE XVII.

The respective Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, as likewise the Consular Chancellors, Secretaries, Clerks, or Attachés, shall enjoy, in both countries, all the rights, prerogatives, immunities, and privileges which are or may hereafter be granted to the officers of the same grade of the most favored nation.

JAPAN.

Treaty concluded March 31, 1854 (Peace and Amity).

There shall be appointed by the Government of the United States, Consuls or Agents to reside in Simoda, at any time after the expiration of eighteen months from the date of the signing of this treaty: Provided, That either of the two Governments deem such arrangement necessary.

It being known that American ships coming to the ports of Simoda and Hakodadi cannot have their wants supplied by the Japanese, it is agreed that American citizens may permanently reside at Simoda and Hakodadi, and the Government of the United States may appoint a Vice-Consul to reside at Hakodadi.

This article to go into effect on the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred fifty-eight.

Americans committing offenses in Japan shall be tried by the American Consul-General or Consul, and shall be punished according to American laws.

Japanese committing offenses against Americans shall be tried by the Japanese authorities, and punished according to Japanese laws.

The Government of Japan admits the right of his excellency the Consul-General of the United States to go beyond the limits of seven ri, but has asked him to delay the use of that right, except in cases of emergency, shipwreck, &c., to which he has assented.