1597. ARTICLE IV.

If litigations and disputes should arise between subjects of the Subne Porte and citizens of the United States, the parties shall not be ard, nor shall judgments be pronounced, unless the American Dragoan be present. Causes in which the sum may exceed five hundred asters shall be submitted to the Sublime Porte, to be decided accordg to the laws of equity and justice. Citizens of the United States of merica, quietly pursuing their commerce, and not being charged or onvicted of any crime or offense, shall not be molested; and even when hey may have committed some offense they shall not be arrested and ut in prison by the local authorities, but they shall be tried by their Minister or Consul, and punished according to their offense, following, n this respect, the usage observed towards other Franks.1

1598. ARTICLE V.

American merchant-vessels that trade to the dominions of the Sublime Porte may go and come in perfect safety with their own flag; but they shall not take the flag of any other power, nor shall they grant their flag to the vessels of other nations and powers, nor to the vessels of rayahs. The Ministers, Consuls, and Vice-Consuls of the United States shall not protect, secretly or publicly, the rayahs of the Sublime Porte, and they shall never suffer a departure from the principles here laid down and agreed to by mutual consent.

If any merchant-vessel of either the contracting parties should be wrecked, assistance and protection shall be afforded to those of the crew that may be saved, and the merchandise and effects which it may be possible to save and recover shall be conveyed to the Consul nearest to the place of the wreck, to be by him delivered to the proprietors.

Protocol concluded August 11, 1874 (Right of Foreigners to hold real estate in the Ottoman Empire).

1600. PROTOCOL.

The law granting foreigners the right of holding real estate does not interfere with the immunities specified by the treaties, and which will

See on the interpretation of this article United States Treaties (1887), pp. 1368 and following.

continue to protect the person and the movable property of foreigners who may become owners of real estate.

As the exercise of this right of possessing real property may induce foreigners to establish themselves in larger numbers in the Ottoman Empire, the Imperial Government thinks it proper to anticipate and to prevent the difficulties to which the application of this law may give rise in certain localities. Such is the object of the arrangements whic follow.

The domicile of any person residing upon the Ottoman soil being inviolable, and as no one can enter it without the consent of the ownẾT, except by virtue of orders emanating from competent authority and with the assistance of the magistrate or functionary invested with the necessary powers, the residence of foreigners is inviolable on the same principle, in conformity with the treaties, and the agents of the public force cannot enter it without the assistance of the Consul or of the delegate of the Consul of the power on which the foreigner depends. By residence we understand the house of inhabitation and its dependencies; that is to say, the out-houses, courts, gardens, and neighboring inclosures, to the exclusion of all other parts of the property.

In the localities distant by less than nine hours' journey from the Consular residence, the agents of the public force cannot enter the residence of a foreigner without the assistance of a Consul, as was before said.

On his part the Consul is bound to give his immediate assistance to the local authority, so as not to let six hours elapse between the moment which he may be informed and the moment of his departure, or the departure of his delegate, so that the action of the authorities may never be suspended more than twenty-four hours.

In the localities distant by nine hours or more than nine hours of travel from the residence of the Consular Agent, the agents of the public force may, on the request of the local authority, and with the assistance of three members of the Council of the Elders of the Commune, enter into the residence of a foreigner, without being assisted by the Consular Agent, but only in case of urgency, and for the search and the proof of the crime of murder, of attempt at murder, of incendiarism, of armed robbery either with infraction or by night in an inhabited house, of armed rebellion, and of the fabrication of counterfeit money, and this entry may be made whether the crime was committed by a foreigner or by an Ottoman subject, and whether it took place in the residence of a foreigner or not in his residence, or in any other place.

These Regulations are not applicable but to the parts of the real estate which constitute the residence, as it has been heretofore defined.

Beyond the residence, the action of the police shall be exercised freely and without reserve; but in case a person charged with crime or offense should be arrested, and the accused shall be a foreigner, the immunities attached to his person shall be observed in respect to him.

The functionary or the officer charged with the accomplishment of a domiciliary visit, in the exceptional circumstances determined before, and the members of the Council of Elders who shall assist him, will be obliged to make out a procès-verbal of the domiciliary visit, and to communicate it immediately to the superior authority under whose jurisdiction they are, and the latter shall transmit it to the nearest Consular Agent without delay.

A special regulation will be promulgated by the Sublime Porte to determine the mode of action of the local police in the several cases provided heretofore.

In localities more distant than nine hours' travel from the residence of the Consular Agent, in which the law of the judicial organization of the Velayet may be in force, foreigners shall be tried, without the assistance of the Consular Delegate, by the Council of Elders, fulfilling the function of justices of the peace, and by the tribunal of the canton, as well for actions not exceeding one thousand piasters as for offenses entailing a fine of five hundred piasters only at the maximum.

Foreigners shall have, in any case, the right of appeal to the tribunal of the arrondissement against the judgments issued, as above stated, and the appeal shall be followed and judged with the assistance of the Consul, in conformity with the treaties.

The appeal shall always suspend the execution of a sentence.

In all cases the forcible execution of the judgments, issued on the conditions determined heretofore shall not take place without the co-operation of the Consul or of his Delegate.

The Imperial Government will enact a law which shall determine the rules of procedure to be observed by the parties in the application of the preceding regulations.

Foreigners, in whatever locality they may be, may freely submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the Council of Elders or of the tribunal of the canton without the assistance of the Consul in cases which do not exceed the competency of these councils or tribunals, reserving always the right of appeal before the tribunal of the arrondissement, where the

case may be brought and tried with the assistance of the Consul or his Delegate.

The consent of a foreigner to be tried, as above stated, without the assistance of his Consul, shall always be given in writing and in advance of all procedure.

It is well understood that all these restrictions do not concern cases which have for their object questions of real estate, which shall be tried and determined under the conditions established by the law.

The right of defense and the publicity of the hearings shall be assured in all cases to foreigners who may appear before the Ottoman tribunals, as well as to Ottoman subjects.

The preceding dispositions shall remain in force until the revision of the ancient treaties, a revision which the Sublime Porte reserves to itself the right to bring about hereafter by an understanding between it and the friendly powers.

PARAGUAY.

Treaty concluded February 4, 1859 (Friendship, Commerce, and Naviga

In the event of any citizen of either of the two contracting parties dying without will or testament in the territory of the other contracting party, the Consul-General, Consul, or Vice-Consul of the nation to which the deceased may belong, or, in his absence, the representative of such Consul-General, Consul, or Vice-Consul, shall, so far as the laws of each country will permit, take charge of the property which the deceased may have left, for the benefit of his lawful heirs and creditors, until an executor or administrator be named by the said Consul-General, Consul, or Vice-Consul, or his representative.

It shall be free for each of the two contracting parties to appoint Consuls for the protection of trade, to reside in the territories of the other party; but before any Consul shall act as such, he shall, in the usual form, be approved and admitted by the Government to which he is sent;

and either of the two contracting parties may except from the residence of Consuls such particular places as either of them may judge fit to be excepted.

The Diplomatic Agents and Consuls of the United States of America in the territories of the Republic of Paraguay shall enjoy whatever privileges, exemptions, and immunities are or may be there granted to the Diplomatic Agents and Consuls of any other nation whatever; and, in like manner, the Diplomatic Agents and Consuls of the Republic of Paraguay in the United States of America shall enjoy whatever privileges, exemptions, and immunities are or may be there granted to agents of any other nation whatever.

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1603. ARTICLE XIV.

The citizens of either of the two contracting parties residing in the territories of the other shall enjoy, in regard to their houses, persons, and properties, the protection of the Government in as full and ample a manner as native citizens.

In like manner the citizens of each contracting party shall enjoy, in the territories of the other, full liberty of conscience, and shall not be molested on account of their religious belief; and such of those citizens as may die in the territories of the other party shall be buried in the public cemeteries, or in places appointed for the purpose, with suitable decorum and respect.

The citizens of the United States of America residing within the territories of the Republic of Paraguay shall be at liberty to exercise, in private and in their own dwellings, or within the dwellings or offices of the Consuls or Vice-Consuls of the United States of America, their religious rites, services, and worship, and to assemble therein for that purpose without hinderance or molestation.

Treaty concluded December 13, 1856 (Friendship and Commerce).

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1604. ARTICLE V.

All suits and disputes arising in Persia between Persian subjects and citizens of the United States shall be carried before the Persian tribunal