1537. ARTICLE XXIII.

The Consuls of the United States of America shall reside in any seaort of our dominions that they shall think proper, and they shall be espected, and enjoy all the privileges which the Consuls of any other ation enjoy; and if any of the citizens of the United States shall conract any debts or engagements, the Consul shall not be in any manner ccountable for them, unless he shall have given a promise, in writing, or the payment or fulfilling thereof; without which promise, in writng, no application to him for any redress shall be made.

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Convention between the United States and other powers, for the establishment of the right of protection in Morocco, concluded July 3, 1880.

1538. ARTICLE I.

The conditions under which protection may be conceded are those stablished in the British and Spanish treaties with the Government of Morocco, and in the convention made between that Government, France, and other powers in 1863, with the modifications introduced by the present convention.

1539. ARTICLE II.

Foreign Representatives at the head of a Legation may select their nterpreters and employees from among the subjects of Morocco or others.

These protected persons shall be subject to no duty, impost or tax whatever, other than those stipulated in Articles XII and XIII.

1540. ARTICLE III.

Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents having charge of a post, and residing within the territory of the Sultan of Morocco, shall be allowed to select but one interpreter, one soldier, and two servants from among the subjects of the Sultan, unless they may require a native secretary.

These protected persons shall, in like manner, be subject to no duty, impost or tax whatever, other than those stipulated in Articles XII and XIII.

1541. ARTICLE IV.

If a Representative shall appoint a subject of the Sultan to the Of of Consular Agent in a town on the coast, such agent shall be respected and honored, as shall the members of his family occupying the same dwelling with him, and they, like him, shall be subject to no duty impost or tax whatever, other than those stipulated in Articles XII and XIII; but he shall not have the right to protect any subjects of the Sultan other than the members of his own family.

He may, however, for the exercise of his functions, have a protected soldier.

Officers in acting charge of Vice-Consulates being subjects of the Sultan, shall, during the exercise of their functions, enjoy the same rights as Consular Agents who are subjects of the Sultan.

1542. ARTICLE V.

The Government of Morocco recognizes the right of Ministers, Chargés d'Affaires and other Representatives, which is granted to them by treaties, to select the persons whom they employ, either in their own service or that of their Governments, unless such persons shall be sheiss or other employees of the Government of Morocco, such as soldiers of the line or of the cavalry, in addition to the Maghaznias in command of their guard. In like manner they shall not be permitted to employ any subject of Morocco who is under prosecution.

It is understood that civil suits commenced before protection shall be terminated before the courts which have instituted such proceedin.&. The execution of the sentence shall suffer no hindrance. Nevertheless, the local authorities of Morocco shall take care to communicate, without delay, the sentence pronounced, to the Legation, Consulate, or Cosular Agency upon which the protected person is dependent.

As to those persons formerly protected, who may have a suit which was commenced before protection was withdrawn from them, their case shall be tried by the court before which it was brought.

The right of protection shall not be exercised towards persons under prosecution for an offense or crime, before they have been tried by the authorities of the country, or before their sentence, if any has been pronounced, has been executed.

1543. ARTICLE VI.

Protection shall extend to the family of the person protected. His dwelling shall be respected.

It is understood that the family is to consist only of the wife, the ildren, and the minor relatives dwelling under the same roof. Protection shall not be hereditary. A single exception, which was stablished by the convention of 1863, but which is not to create a preclent, shall be maintained in favor of the Benchimol family.

Nevertheless, if the Sultan of Morocco shall grant another exception, ach of the contracting powers shall be entitled to claim a similar conession.

1544. ARTICLE VII.

Foreign representatives shall inform the Sultan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, in writing, of any selections of an employee made by them. They shall furnish annually to the said Minister a list of the names of the persons protected by them or by their Agents throughout the States of the Sultan of Morocco.

This list shall be transmitted to the local authorities, who shall consider as persons enjoying protection only those whose names are contained herein.

1545. ARTICLE VIII.

Consular Officers shall transmit each year to the authorities of the district in which they reside a list, bearing their seal, of the persons protected by them. These authorities shall transmit it to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the end that, if it be not conformable to the regulations, the Representatives at Tangier may be informed of the fact.

A Consular Officer shall be required to give immediate information of any changes that may have taken place among the persons protected by his Consulate.

1546. ARTICLE IX.

Servants, farmers, and other native employees of native secretaries and interpreters shall not enjoy protection. The same shall be the case with Moorish employees or servants of foreign subjects.

Nevertheless, the local authorities shall not arrest an employee or servant of a native officer in the service of a Legation or Consulate, or of a foreign subject or protected person, without having notified the authority upon which he is dependent.

If a subject of Morocco in the service of a foreign subject shall kill or wound any person, or violate his domicile, he shall be arrested immediately, but the Diplomatic or Consular authority under which he is shall be notified without delay.

1547. ARTICLE X.

Nothing is changed with regard to the situation of brokers, as estab lished by the treaties and by the convention of 1863,* except what is stipulated, relative to taxes, in the following articles:

1548. ARTICLE XI.

The right to hold property is recognized in Morocco as belonging to all foreigners.

The purchase of property must take place with the previous consent of the Government, and the title of such property shall be subject to the forms prescribed by the laws of the country.

Any question that may arise concerning this right shall be decided according to the same laws, with the privilege of appeal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs stipulated in the treaties.

1549. ARTICLE XII.

Foreigners and protected persons who are the owners or tenants of cultivated land, as well as brokers engaged in agriculture, shall pay the agriculture tax. They shall send to their Consul annually an exact statement of what they possess, delivering into his hands the amount of the tax.

* Regulations (Translated from the French) relative to protection adopted by common consent by the Legation of France and the Government of Morocco, August 1, 1863, referred to in Article 10.

Protection is individual and temporary.

It consequently does not in general apply to the relatives of the person protected. It may apply to his family, that is to say, to his wife and children living under the same roof. It lasts at the longest for a person's lifetime and is never hereditary. with the single exception of the Benchimol family, which has furnished for several generations and still furnishes persons who act in the capacity of Brokers and interpreters for the post of Tangier.

Protected persons are divided into two classes.

The first class comprises natives employed by the Legation and by the various French consular officers.

The second class consists of native factors, brokers, or agents, employed by French merchants for their business affairs. It is proper here to refer to the fact that the term merchant is only applied to a person carrying on the import or export trade on a large scale, either in his own name or as the agent of others.

The number of native brokers enjoying French protection is limited to two for each commercial house.

By way of exception commercial firms having establishments in different ports may have two brokers attached to each of these establishments, who may as such enjoy French protection.

He who shall make a false statement shall be fined double the amount of the tax that he would regularly have been obliged to pay for the property not declared. In case of repeated offense this fine shall be doubled.

The nature, method, date, and apportionment of this tax shall form the subject of a special regulation between the Representatives of the Powers and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of His Shereefian Majesty.

1550. ARTICLE XIII.

Foreigners, protected persons, and brokers owning beasts of burden shall pay what is called the gate-tax. The apportionment and the manner of collecting this tax, which is paid alike by foreigners and natives, shall like wise form the subject of a special regulation between the Representatives of the Powers and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of His Shereefian Majesty.

The said tax shall not be increased without a new agreement with the Representatives of the Powers.

1551. ARTICLE XIV.

The mediation of interpreters, native secretaries, or soldiers of the different Legations or Consulates, when persons are concerned who are under the protection of the Legation or Consulate, shall be permitted only when they are the bearers of a document signed by the head of a mission or by the Consular authority.

1552. ARTICLE XV.

Any subject of Morocco who has been naturalized in a foreign country, and who shall return to Morocco, shall after having remained for a length of time equal to that which shall have been regularly necessary for him to obtain such naturalization, choose between entire submission to the laws of the Empire and the obligation to quit Morocco, unless it shall be proved that his naturalization in a foreign country was obtained with the consent of the Government of Morocco.

Foreign naturalization heretofore acquired by subjects of Morocco according to the rules established by the laws of each country, shall be continued to them as regards all its effects, without any restriction.

1553. ARTICLE XVI.

No irregular or unofficial protection shall be granted in future. The authorities of Morocco will recognize no protection, of any kind whatever, save such as is expressly provided for in this convention.