Mr. William Goehring, His Privy Councillor of Legation, ConsulGeneral of the German Empire at Amsterdam;

HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA, KING OF BOHEMIA AND APOSTOLIC KING OF HUNGARY,

Rodolphe Count Khevenhüller-Metsch, His Chamberlain, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near his Majesty the King of the Belgians,

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS,

Auguste Baron Lambermont, His Minister of State, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, and

M. Emile Banning, Director General in the Department of Foreign Affairs of Belgium;

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF DENMARK,

Mr. Frederic-George Schack de Brockdorff, Consul-General of Denmark, at Antwerp;

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SPAIN, AND IN HIS NAME HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN REGENT OF THE KINGDOM,

Don José Gutierrez de Agüera, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians;

HIS MAJESTY THE SOVEREIGN-KING OF THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF THE CONGO,

Mr. Edmund Van Eetvelde, Administrator-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Independent State of the Congo

and

Mr. Auguste Van Maldeghem, Councillor in the Belgian Court of Cassation;

THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC,

M. Albert Bourée, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic near His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and

M. George Cogordan, Minister Plenipotentiary, Director of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France;

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, EMPRESS OF INDIA,

Lord Vivian, Peer of the United Kingdom, Her Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and

Sir John Kirk;

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF ITALY.

Francis de Renzis, Baron of Montanaro, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and

Mr. Thomas Catalani, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary;

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE NETHERLANDS, GRAND DUKE OF LUXEMBURG,

Louis Baron Gericke de Herwynen, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians;

HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY THE SHAH OF PERSIA,

General Nazare Aga, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians;

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HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF PORTUGAL AND OF THE ALGARVES, Mr. Henrique de Macedo Pereira Coutinho, Member of His Council, Peer of the Kingdom, Minister and Honorary Secertary of State, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians;

IIIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS,

Leon Prince Ouroussoff, Master of His Court, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and

Mr. Frederic de Martens, His Actual Councillor of State, Permanent Member of the Council of Foreign Affairs of Russia; HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SWEDEN AND NORWAY,

Mr. Charles de Burenstam, His Chamberlain, His Minister Plempotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians and near His Majesty the King of the Netherlands,

HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF THE OTTOMANS,

Étienne Carathéodory Efendi, High Dignitary of His Empire, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near His Majesty the King of the Belgians;

HIS HIGHNESS THE SULTAN OF ZANZIBAR,

Sir John Kirk, and

Mr. William Göehring;

Who, being furnished with full powers, which have been found to be in good and due form, have adopted the following provisions:

CHAPTER I. Slave-trade countries.-Measures to be taken in the places of origin. ARTICLE I.

The powers declare that the most effective means of counteracting the slave-trade in the interior of Africa are the following:

1. Progressive organization of the administrative, judicial, religious, and military services in the African territories placed under the sovereignty or protectorate of civilized nations.

2. The gradual establishment in the interior, by the powers to which the territories are subject, of strongly occupied stations, in such a way as to make their protective or repressive action effectively felt in the territories devastated by slave hunting.

3. The construction of roads, and in particular of railways, connecting the advanced stations with the coast, and permitting easy access to the inland waters, and to such of the upper courses of the rivers and streams as are broken by rapids and cataracts, with a view to substituting economical and rapid means of transportation for the present system of carriage by men.

4. Establishment of steam-boats on the inland navigable waters and on the lakes, supported by fortified posts established on the banks. 5. Establishment of telegraphic lines, insuring the communication of the posts and stations with the coast and with the administrative

centres.

6. Organization of expeditions and flying columns, to keep up the communication of the stations with each other and with the coast to support repressive action, and to insure the security of high roads.

7. Restriction of the importation of fire-arms, at least of those of modern pattern, and of ammunition throughout the entire extent of the territory in which the slave-trade is carried on.

ARTICLE II.

The stations, the inland cruisers organized by each power in its waters, and the posts which serve as ports of register for them shall, independently of their principal task, which is to prevent the capture of slaves and intercept the routes of the slave trade, have the following subsidiary duties:

1. To support and, if necessary, to serve as a refuge for the native population, whether placed under the sovereignty or the protectorate of the State to which the station is subject, or independent, and temporarily for all other natives in case of imminent danger; to place the population of the first of these categories in a position to co-operate for their own defense; to diminish intestine wars between tribes by means of arbitration; to initiate them in agricultural labor and in the industrial arts so as to increase their welfare; to raise them to civilization and bring about the extinction of barbarous customs, such as cannibalism, and human sacrifices.

2. To give aid and protection to commercial enterprises; to watch over their legality by especially controlling contracts for service with natives, and to prepare the way for the foundation of permanent centres of cultivation and of commercial settlements.

3. To protect, without distinction of creed, the missions which are already or that may hereafter be established.

4. To provide for the sanitary service and to extend hospitality and help to explorers and to all who take part in Africa in the work of repressing the slave-trade.

ARTICLE III.

The powers exercising a sovereignty or a protectorate in Africa confirm and give precision to their former declarations, and engage to proceed gradually, as circumstances may permit, either by the means above indicated, or by any other means that they may consider suitable, with the repression of the slave-trade, each State in its respective possessions and under its own direction. Whenever they consider it possible, they shall lend their good offices to such powers as, with a purely humanitarian object, may be engaged in Africa in the fulfillment of a similar mission.

ARTICLE IV.

The States exercising sovereign powers or protectorates in Africa may in all cases delegate to companies provided with charters all or a portion of the engagements which they assume in virtue of Article III. They remain, nevertheless, directly responsible for the engagements which they contract by the present act, and guarantee the execution thereof. The powers promise to encourage, aid and protect such national associations and enterprises due to private initiative as may wish to co-operate in their possessions in the repression of the

slave-trade, subject to their receiving previous authorization, such authorization being revokable at any time, subject also to their being directed and controlled, and to the exclusion of the exercise of rights of sovereignty.

ARTICLE V.

The contracting powers pledge themselves, unless this has already been provided for by laws in accordance with the spirit of the present article, to enact or propose to their respective legislative bodies, in the course of one year at the latest from the date of the signing of the present general act, a law rendering applicable, on the one hand, the provisions of their penal laws concerning grave offenses against the person, to the organizers and abettors of slave-hunting, to those guilty of mutilating male adults and children, and to all persons taking part in the capture of slaves by violence; and, on the other hand, the provisions relating to offenses against individual liberty, to carriers and transporters of, and to dealers in, slaves.

The accessories and accomplices of the different categories of slave captors and dealers above specified shall be punished with penalties proportionate to those incurred by the principals.

Guilty persons who may have escaped from the jurisdiction of the authorities of the country where the crimes or offenses have been committed shall be arrested either on communication of the incriminating evidence by the authorities who have ascertained the violation of the law, or on production of any other proof of guilt by the power in whose territory they may have been discovered, and shall be kept, without other formality, at the disposal of the tribunals competent to try them.

The powers shall communicate to one another, with the least possible delay, the laws or decrees existing or promulgated in execution of the present Article.

ARTICLE VI.

Slaves liberated in consequence of the stoppage or dispersion of a convoy in the interior of the continent, shall be sent back, if circumstances permit, to their country of origin; if not, the local authorities shall facilitate, as much as possible, their means of living, and if they desire it, help them to settle on the spot.

ARTICLE VII.

Any fugitive slave claiming, on the continent, the protection of the signatory powers, shall receive it, and shall be received in the camps and stations officially established by said powers, or on board of the vessels of the State plying on the lakes and rivers. Private stations and boats are only permitted to exercise the right of asylum subject to the previous consent of the State.

ARTICLE VIII.

The experience of all nations that have intercourse with Africa having shown the pernicious and preponderating part played by firearms in operations connected with the slave-trade as well as internal

wars between the native tribes; and this same experience having clearly proved that the preservation of the African population whose existence it is the express wish of the powers to protect, is a radical impossibility, if measures restricting the trade in fire-arms and ammunition are not adopted, the powers decide, so far as the present state of their frontiers permits, that the importation of fire-arms, and especially of rifles and improved weapons, as well as of powder, ball and cartridges, is, except in the cases and under the conditions provided for in the following Article, prohibited in the territories comprised between the 20th parallel of North latitude and the 22d parallel of South latitude, and extending westward to the Atlantic Ocean and east ward to the Indian Ocean and its dependencies, including the islands adjacent to the coast within 100 nautical miles from the shore.

ARTICLE IX.

The introduction of fire-arms and ammunition, when there shall be occasion to authorize it in the possessions of the signatory powers that exercise rights of sovereignty or of protectorate in Africa, shall be regulated, unless identical or stricter regulations have already been enforced, in the following manner in the zone defined in Article VIII:

All imported fire-arms shall be deposited, at the cost, risk and peril of the importers, in a public warehouse under the supervision of the State government. No withdrawal of fire-arms or imported ammunition shall take place from such warehouses without the previous authorization of the said government. This authorization shall, except in the cases hereinafter specified, be refused for the withdrawal of all arms for accurate firing, such as rifles, magazine guns, or breech-loaders, whether whole or in detached pieces, their cartridges, caps, or other ammunition intended for them.

In seaports and under conditions affording the needful guarantees, the respective governments may permit private warehouses, but only for ordinary powder and for flint-lock muskets, and to the exclusion of improved arms and ammunition therefor.

Independently of the measures directly taken by governments for the arming of the public force and the organization of their defence, individual exceptions may be allowed in the case of persons furnishing sufficient guarantees that the weapon and ammunition delivered to them shall not be given, assigned or sold to third parties, and for travelers provided with a declaration of their government stating that the weapon and ammunition are intended for their personal defence exclusively.

All arms, in the cases provided for in the preceding paragraph, shall be registered and marked by the supervising authorities, who shall deliver to the persons in question permits to bear arms, stating the name of the bearer and showing the stamp with which the weapon is marked. These permits shall be revocable in case proof is furnished that they have been improperly used, and shall be issued for five years only, but may be renewed.

The above rule as to warehousing shall also apply to gunpowder. Only flint-lock guns, with unrifled barrels, and common gunpowder known as trade powder, may be withdrawn from the warehouses for sale. At each withdrawal of arms and ammunition of this kind for