material to be submitted to the arbitral jurisdiction according to the terms of the agreement. The arbitral tribunal is competent to decide as to the regularity of its own formation. ARTICLE X. The arbitrator or the arbitral tribunal should decide according to the special rules that the two parties may have established, or ex æquo et bono, in accordance with the powers that may have been conferred upon them by the agreement. ARTICLE XI. The decisions of the tribunal will be taken in the presence of the three arbitrators and by unanimity or majority of votes. The concordant votes of the two arbitrators first chosen will decide the question or questions submitted to the tribunal. If there is a difference between the two, the president, or third arbitrator, will adopt one of the votes or will give his own, which will decide the question. In the absence of one of the arbitrators, the session will be postponed until his appearance or while he is absent for sufficient reason. If, however, after having been duly summoned, the absentee without just reason does not care to take part in the decisions or in other acts of the tribunal, the tribunal may continue with the two present, inserting upon the minutes that the absence of the other is voluntary and without justification. ARTICLE XII. The sentence must decide finally all the points in litigation, and will be made in duplicate, signed by the single arbitrator or by the three members of the arbitral tribunal. If any of these refuse to sign, the the other two shall make mention of this in a special statement signed by them. The decisions will or will not give the reasons therefor according to the provisions of each special agreement. ARTICLE XIII. The arbitrator or the arbitral tribunal must notify the representative of each of the two parties of the sentence. ARTICLE XIV. The sentence legally pronounced will decide, within the limits of its application, the litigation between the parties. It will indicate the time within which it must be executed. ARTICLE XV. Each one of the Contracting States binds itself to observe and carry out loyally the arbitral decision. ARTICLE XVI. The questions that arise regarding the execution of the sentence will be decided by arbitration and, whenever it may be possible, by the same arbitrator who gave it. ARTICLE XVII. If, before the cxecution of the sentence, either of the two parties interested have knowledge of the falsity or forgery of any document upon which the sentence was based, or can prove that this, in whole or in part, was caused by an error as to fact, he may appeal for a rehearing to same arbitral tribunal. ARTICLE XVIII. Each one of the parties will pay the expenses of its representation and half of the general expenses of the arbitration. ARTICLE XIX. After the approval by the legislative power of each one of the two Republics, this treaty will be ratified by the respective Governments and the ratifications will be exchanged in the city of Rio de Janeiro or in Buenos Aires in the shortest possible time. ARTICLE XX. The present treaty will be in force for ten years, counting from the day upon which the ratifications are exchanged. If it is not denounced six months before the end of this time, it will be continued for another period of ten years, and so on. In faith whereof, we, the Plenipotentiaries above nominated, sign the present instrument in duplicate, one in the Portuguese and the other in the Castillian languages, and affix thereto our seals. Done in the city of Rio de Janeiro, on the seventh day of the month of September, in the year nineteen hundred and five. DOCUMENTS CONCERNING THE CONGO. DECLARATION BY THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE CONGO. April 22, 1884. The International Association of the Congo, hereby declares that by Treaties with the legitimate sovereigns in the basins of the Congo and of the Niadi-Kiahm and in adjacent territories upon the Atlantic, there has been ceded to it, territory for the use and benefit of free States established and being established under the care and supervision of the said Association in said basins and adjacent territories, to which cession the said free States of right succeed. That the said International Association has adopted for itself and for the said Free States, as their standard, the flag of the International African Association, being a blue flag with a golden star in the center. That the said Association and the said States have resolved to levy no Custom-House duties upon goods or articles of merchandise imported into their territories or brought by the route which has been constructed around the Congo cataracts; this they have done with a view of enabling commerce to penetrate into Equatorial Africa. That they guarantee to foreigners settling in their territories the right to purchase, sell or lease, lands and buildings situated therein, to establish commercial houses and to there carry on trade upon the sole condition that they shall obey the laws. They pledge themselves, moreover, never to grant to the citizens of one nation any advantages without immediately extending the same to the citizens of all other nations, and to do all in their power to prevent the Slave trade. In testimony whereof, Henry S. Sanford, duly empowered therefor, by the said Association, acting for itself and for the said Free States, has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal, this 22d day of April, 1884, in the city of Washington. [SEAL.] H. S. SANFord. RECOGNITION OF THE FLAG OF THE KONGO FREE STATE BY THE UNITED STATES. April 22, 1884. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Secretary of State, duly empowered therefor by the President of the United States of America, and pursuant to the advice and consent of the Senate, heretofore given, acknowledges the receipt of the foregoing notification from the International Association of the Kongo, and declares that, in harmony with the traditional policy of the United States, which enjoins a proper regard for the commercial interests of their citizens while, at the same time, avoiding interference with controversies between other powers as well as alliances with foreign nations, the Government of the United States announces its sympathy with, and approval of, the humane and benevolent purposes of the International Association of the Kongo, administering, as it does, the interests of the Free States there established, and will order the officers of the United States, both on land and sea, to recognize the flag of the International African Association, as the flag of a friendly Government. In testimony whereof, he has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal, this twenty-second day of April, A. D. 1884, in the city of Washington. [SEAL.] FREDK. T. FRELINGHUYSEN. M. STRAUCH, PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE CONGO, TO M. JULES FERRY, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. BRUSSELS, April 23, 1884. MR. MINISTER: The International Association of the Congo, in the name of the stations and free lands which it has founded in the Congo and the valley of the Niadi-Quillou, formerly declares that it will not cede them to any power, under the reservation of special conventions which might intervene between France and the association to fix the limits and the conditions of their respective actions. However, the association, desiring to give another proof of its friendly sentiment toward France, agrees to give to it the right of preference if, from unforeseen circumstances, the association should be led some day to alienate its possessions. (S.) STRAUCH. M. JULES FERRY, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF FRANCE, TO M. STRAUCH, PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE CONGO. PARIS, April 24, 1884. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23d instant, by which, in your position as president of the International Association of the Congo, you transmit to me assurances and guaranties intended to strengthen our cordial and neighborly relations in the region of the Congo. I note these declarations with great satisfaction, and in return I have the honor to inform you that the French Government undertakes to respect the stations and free territories of the association and not to place any obstacle in the way of the exercise of its rights. GENERAL ACT OF THE CONFERENCE OF BERLIN CONCERNING THE CONGO. Signed at Berlin, February 26, 1885. In the name of Almighty God: The President of the United States of America, His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia, His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia etc, and Apostolic King of Hungary, His Majesty the King of the Belgians, His Majesty the King of Denmark, His Majesty the King of Spain, the President of the French Republic, Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of the Indies, His Majesty the King of Italy, His Majesty the King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, His Majesty the King of Portugal and of the Algarves, etc. etc. etc. His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway etc. etc., and His Majesty the Emperor of the Ottomans, Wishing to regulate in a spirit of good mutual understanding the conditions most favorable to the development of commerce and of civilization in certain regions of Africa, and to assure to all peoples the advantages of free navigation upon the two principal African rivers which empty into the Atlantic ocean; desirous on the other hand to prevent misunderstandings and contentions to which the taking of new possessions on the coast of Africa may in the future give rise, and at the same time preoccupied with the means of increasing the moral and material well being of the indigenous populations, have resolved, upon the invitation which has been addressed to them by the Imperial Government of Germany in accord with the Government of the French Republic, to assemble for this object a Conference at Berlin and have named for their Plenipotentiaries, as follows: |