Art. LXVII. Penal provisions similar to those provided for by Article V shall be enacted against persons importing, transporting, and trading in African slaves, against the mutilators of male children, or adults, and those who traffic in them, as well as against their associates and accomplices.

Art. LXVIII. The signatory powers recognize the great importance of the law respecting the prohibition of the slave-trade sanctioned by His Majesty the Emperor of the Ottomans on the 4th (16th) of December, 1889 (22 Rebi-ul-Akhir, 1307), and they are assured that an active surveillance will be organized by the Ottoman authorities, especially on the west coast of Arabia and on the routes which place that coast in communication with the other possessions of His Imperial Majesty in Asia.

Art. LXIX. His Majesty the Shah of Persia consents to organize an active surveillance in the territorial waters and those off the coast of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman which are under his sovereignty, and on the inland routes which serve for the transportation of slaves. The magistrates and other authorities shall, to this effect, receive the necessary

powers.

Art. LXX. His Highness the Sultan of Zanzibar consents to give his most effective support to the repression of crimes and offenses committed by African slave-traders on land as well as at sea. The tribunals created for this purpose in the Sultanate of Zanzibar shall rigorously enforce the penal provisions mentioned in Article V. In order to render more secure the freedom of liberated slaves, both in virtue of the provisions of the present general act and of the decrees adopted in this matter by His Highness and his predecessors, a liberation office shall be established in Zanzibar.

Art. LXXI. The diplomatic and consular agents and the naval officers of the contracting powers shall, within the limits of existing conventions, give their assistance to the local authorities in order to assist in repressing the slave-trade where it still exists. They shall be entitled to be present at trials for slave-trading brought about at their instance, without, however, being entitled, to take part in the deliberations. Art. LXXII. Liberation offices, or institutions in lieu thereof, shall be organized by the governments of the countries to which African slaves are sent, for the purposes specified in Article XVIII.

Art. LXXIII. The signatory powers having undertaken to communicate to one another all information useful for the repression of the slavetrade, the Governments whom the present chapter concerns shall periodically exchange with the other Governments statistical data relating to slaves intercepted and liberated, and to the legislative and administrative measures which have been taken for suppressing the slave-trade.

Chapter V. Institutions intended to insure the execution of the

general act.

Section I. Of the international maritime office.

Art. LXXIV. In accordance with the provisions of Article XXVII, an international office shall be instituted at Zanzibar, in which each of the signatory powers may be represented by a delegate.

Art. LXXV. The office shall be constituted as soon as three powers have appointed their respresentatives.

It shall draw up regulations fixing the manner of exercising its functions. These regulations shall immediately be submitted to the approval of such signatory powers as shall have signified their intention of being represented in this office. They shall decide in this respect within the shortest possible time.

Art. LXXVI. The expenses of this institution shall be divided in equal parts among the signatory powers mentioned in the preceding article.

Art. LXXVII. The object of the office at Zanzibar shall be to centralize all documents and information of a nature to facilitate the repression of the slave-trade in the maritime zone. For this purpose the signatory powers engage to forward within the shortest time possible:

1. The documents specified in Article XLI.

2. Summaries of the reports and copies of the minutes referred to in Article XLVIII.

3. The lists of the territorial or consular authorities and special delegates competent to take action as regards vessels seized according to the terms of Article XLIX.

4. Copies of judgments and condemnations in accordance with Article LVIII.

5. All information that may lead to the discovery of persons engaged in the slave-trade in the above-mentioned zone.

Art. LXXVIII. The archives of the office shall always be open to the naval officers of the signatory powers authorized to act within the limits of the zone defined by Article XXI, as well as to the territorial or judicial authorities, and to consuls specially designated by their Governments.

The office shall supply to foreign officers and agents authorized to consult its archives, translations into a European language of documents written in an oriental language.

It shall make the communications provided for in Article XLVIII.

Art. LXXIX. Auxiliary offices in communication with the office at Zanzibar may be established in certain parts of the zone, in pursuance of a previous agreement between the interested powers.

They shall be composed of delegates of these powers, and established in accordance with Articles LXXV, LXXVI, and LXXVIII.

The documents and information specified in Article LXXVII, so far

as they relate to a part of the zone specially concerned, shall be sent to them directly by the territorial and consular authorities of the region in question, but this shall not exempt the latter from the duty of communicating the same to the office at Zanzibar, as provided by the same article. Art. LXXX. The office at Zanzibar shall prepare in the first two months of every year, a report of its own operations and of those of the auxiliary offices, during the past twelve months.

Section II. Of the exchange between the Governments of documents and information relating to the slave-trade.

Art. LXXXI. The powers shall communicate to one another, to the fullest extent and with the least delay that they shall consider possible: 1. The text of the laws and administrative regulations, existing or enacted by application of the clauses of the present general act;

2. Statistical information concerning the slave-trade, slaves arrested and liberated, and the traffic in fire-arms, ammunition, and alcoholic liquors. Art. LXXXII. The exchange of these documents and information shall be centralized in a special office attached to the foreign office at Brussels.

Art. LXXXIII. The office at Zanzibar shall forward to it every year the report mentioned in Article LXXX, concerning its operations during the past year, and concerning those of auxiliary offices that may have been established in accordance with Article LXXIX.

Art. LXXXIV. The documents and information shall be collected and published periodically, and addressed to all the signatory powers. This publication shall be accompanied every year by an analytical table of the legislative, administrative, and statistical documents mentioned in Articles LXXXI and LXXXIII.

Art. LXXXV. The office expenses as well as those incurred in correspondence, translation, and printing, shall be shared by all the signatory powers, and shall be collected through the agency of the department of the foreign office at Brussels.

Section III. Of the protection of liberated slaves.

Art. LXXXVI. The signatory powers having recognized the duty of protecting liberated slaves in their respective possessions, engage to establish, if they do not already exist, in the ports of the zone determined by Article XXI, and in such parts of their possessions as may be places for the capture, passage and arrival of African slaves, such offices and institutions as may be deemed sufficient by them, whose business shall specially consist in liberating and protecting them in accordance with the provisions of Articles VI, XVIII, LII, LXIII and LXVI.

Art. LXXXVII. The liberation offices or the authorities charged with this service shall deliver letters of release and shall keep a register thereof. In case of the denunciation of an act connected with the slave-trade, or one of illegal detention, or on application of the slaves themselves, the

said offices or authorities shall exercise all necessary diligence to insure the release of the slaves and the punishment of the offenders.

The delivery of letters of release shall in no case be delayed, if the slave be accused of a crime or offense against the common law. But after the delivery of the said letters an investigation shall be proceeded with in the form established by the ordinary procedure.

Art. LXXXVIII. The signatory powers shall favor, in their possessions, the foundation of establishments of refuge for women and of education for liberated children.

Art. LXXXIX. Freed slaves may always apply to the offices for protection in the enjoyment of their freedom.

Whoever shall have used fraudulent or violent means to deprive a freed slave of his letters of release or of his liberty, shall be considered as a slave-dealer.

Chapter VI. Measures to restrict the traffic in spirituous liquors.

Art. XC. Being justly anxious concerning the moral and material consequences to which the abuse of spirituous liquors subjects the native population, the signatory powers have agreed to enforce the provisions of articles XCI, XCII and XCIII within a zone extending from the 20th degree of North latitude to the 22d degree of South latitude, and bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and on the east by the Indian Ocean and its dependencies, including the islands adjacent to the main land within 100 nautical miles from the coast.

Art. XCI. In the districts of this zone where it shall be ascertained that, either on account of religious belief or from some other causes, the use of distilled liquors does not exist or has not been developed, the powers shall prohibit their importation. The manufacture of distilled

liquors shall be likewise prohibited there.

Each power shall determine the limits of the zone of prohibition of alcoholic liquors in its possessions or protectorates, and shall be bound to make known the limits thereof to the other powers within the space of six months.

The above prohibition can only be suspended in the case of limited quantities intended for the consumption of the non-native population and imported under the regime and conditions determined by each Government.

Art. XCII. The powers having possessions or exercising protectorates in those regions of the zone which are not subjected to the regime of the prohibition, and into which alcoholic liquors are at present either freely imported or pay an import duty of less than 15 francs per hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade, engage to levy on such alcoholic liquors an import duty of 15 francs per hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade, for three years after the present general act comes into force. At the expiration of this period the duty may be increased to 25 francs during a fresh period of three years. At the end of the sixth year it shall be submitted to re

vision, for the purpose of then fixing, if possible, a minimum duty throughout the whole extent of the zone where the prohibition referred to in Article XCI is not in force.

The powers retain the right of maintaining and increasing the duties beyond the minimum fixed by the present article in those regions where they already possess that right.

Art. XCIII. Distilled liquors manufactured in the regions referred to in Article XCII, and intended for inland consumption, shall be subject to an excise duty.

This excise duty, the collection of which the powers engage to secure, as far as possible, shall not be less than the minimum import duty fixed by article XCII.

Art. XCIV. The signatory powers having possessions in Africa contiguous to the zone specified in Article XC engage to adopt the necessary measures for preventing the introduction of spirituous liquors within the territories of the said zone via their inland frontiers.

Art. XCV. The powers shall communicate to one another, through the office at Brussels, and according to the terms of Chapter V, information relating to the traffic in alcoholic liquors within their respective territories.

Chapter VII. Final Provisions.

Art. XCVI. The present general act repeals all contrary stipulations of conventions previously concluded between the signatory powers.

Art. XCVII. The signatory powers, without prejudice to the stipulations contained in Articles XIV, XXIII, and XCII, reserve the right of introducing into the present general act, hereafter and by common consent, such modifications or improvements as experience may prove to be useful.

Art. XCVIII. Powers who have not signed the present general act shall be allowed to adhere to it.

The signatory powers reserve the right to impose such conditions as they may deem necessary to their adhesion.

If no conditions shall be stipulated, adhesion implies acceptance of all the obligations and admission to all the advantages stipulated by the present general act.

The powers shall agree among themselves as to the steps to be taken to secure the adhesion of states whose cooperation may be necessary or useful in order to insure complete execution of the general act.

Adhesion shall be effected by a separate act. Notice thereof shall be given through the diplomatic channel to the Government of the King of the Belgians, and by that Government to all the signatory and adherent states.

Art. XCIX. The present general act shall be ratified within the shortest possible period, which shall not in any case exceed one year.