conducted on behalf of its Clearing Office. This agent will exercise a general control over the representatives or counsel employed by its nationals.

Decisions will be arrived at on documentary evidence, but it will be open to the Tribunal to hear the parties in person, or according to their preference by their representatives approved by the two Governments, or by the agent referred to above, who shall be competent to intervene along with the party or to re-open and maintain a claim abandoned by the same.

19.

The Clearing Offices concerned will lay before the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal all the information and documents in their possession, so to enable the Tribunal to decide rapidly on the cases which are brought before it.

20.

Where one of the parties concerned appeals against the joint decision of the two Clearing Offices he shall make a deposit against the costs, which deposit shall only be refunded when the first judgment is modified in favour of the appellant and in proportion to the success he may attain, his opponent in case of such a refund being required to pay an equivalent proportion of the costs and expenses. Security accepted by the Tribunal may be substituted for a deposit.

A fee of 5 per cent. of the amount in dispute shall be charged in respect of all cases brought before the Tribunal. This fee shall, unless the Tribunal directs otherwise, be borne by the unsuccessful party. Such fee shall be added to the deposit referred to. It is also independent of the security.

The Tribunal may award to one of the parties a sum in respect of the expenses of the proceedings.

Any sum payable under this paragraph shall be credited to the Clearing Office of the successful party as a separate item.

21.

With a view to the rapid settlement of claims, due regard shall be paid in the appointment of all persons connected with the Clearing Offices or with

the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal to their knowledge of the language of the other country concerned. Each of the Clearing Offices will be at liberty to correspond with the other and to forward documents in its own language.

22.

Subject to any special agreement to the contrary between the Governments concerned, debts shall carry interest in accordance with the following provisions :

Interest shall not be payable on sums of money due by way of dividend, interest, or other periodical payments which themselves represent interest on capital.

The rate of interest shall be 5 per cent. per annum, except in cases where, by contract, law, or custom, the creditor is entitled to payment of interest at a different rate. In such cases the rate to which he is entitled shall prevail.

Interest shall run from the date of commencement of hostilities (or, if the sum of money to be recovered fell due during the war, from the date at which it fell due) until the sum is credited to the Clearing Office of the creditor.

Sums due by way of interest shall be treated as debts admitted by the Clearing Office and shall be credited to the Creditor Clearing Office in the same way as such debts.

23.

Where by decision of the Clearing Offices or the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal a claim is held not to fall within Article 248, the creditor shall be at liberty to prosecute the claim before the Courts or to take such other proceedings as may be open to him.

The presentation of a claim to the Clearing Office suspends the operation of any period of prescription.

24.

The High Contracting Parties agree to regard the decisions of the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal as final and conclusive, and to render them binding upon their nationals.

25.

In any case where a Creditor Clearing Office declines to notify a claim to the Debtor Clearing Office, or to take any step provided for in this Annex intended to make effective in whole or in part a request of which it has received due notice, the enemy creditor shall be entitled to receive from the Clearing Office a certificate setting out the amount of the claim, and shall then be entitled to prosecute the claim before the courts or to take such other proceedings as may be open to him.

SECTION IV.--Property, rights and interests.

ARTICLE 249.

The question of private property, rights and interests in an enemy country shall be settled according to the principles laid down in this Section and to the provisions of the Annex hereto :

(a) The exceptional war measures and measures of transfer (defined in paragraph 3 of the Annex hereto) taken in the territory of the former Austrian Empire with respect to the property, rights and interests of nationals of Allied or Associated Powers, including companies and associations in which they are interested, when liquidation has not been completed, shall be immediately discontinued or stayed and the property, rights and interests concerned restored to their owners.

(b) Subject to any contrary stipulations which may be provided for in the present Treaty, the Allied and Associated Powers reserve the rights to retain and liquidate all property, rights and interests which belong at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty to nationals of the former Austrian Empire, or companies controlled by them, and are within the territories, colonies, possessions and protectorates of such Powers (including territories ceded to them by the present Treaty) or are under the control of those Powers.

The liquidation shall be carried out in accordance with the laws of the Allied or Associated State concerned, and the owner shall not be able to dispose of such property, rights or interests nor to subject them to any charge without the consent of that State.

Persons who within six months of the coming into force of the present Treaty show that they have acquired ipso facto in accordance with its provisions the nationality of an Allied or Associated Power, including those who under Articles 72 or 76 obtain such nationality with the consent of the competent authorities, or who under Articles 74 or 77 acquire such nationality in virtue of previous rights of citizenship (pertnienza) will not be considered as nationals of the former Austrian Empire within the meaning of this paragraph.

(c) The price or the amount of compensation in respect of the exercise of the right referred to in paragraph (b) will be fixed in accordance with the methods of sale or valuation adopted by the laws of the country in which the property has been retained or liquidated.

(d) As between the Allied and Associated Powers and their nationals on the one hand and nationals of the former Austrian Empire on the other hand, as also between Austria on the one hand and the Allied and Associated Powers and their nationals on the other hand, all the exceptional war measures, or measures of transfer, or acts done or to be done in execution of such measures as defined in paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Annex hereto shall be considered as final and binding upon all persons except as regards the reservations laid down in the present Treaty.

(e) The nationals of Allied and Associated Powers shall be entitled to compensation in respect of damage or injury inflicted upon their property, rights or interests, including any company or association in which they are interested, in the territory of the former Austrian Empire, by the application either of the exceptional war measures or measures of transfer mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Annex hereto. The claims made in this respect by such nationals shall be investigated, and the total of the compensation shall be determined by the Mixed Arbitral Tribunal provided for in Section VI or by an arbitrator appointed by that Tribunal. This compensation shall be borne by Austria, and may be charged upon the property of nationals of the former Austrian Empire, or companies controlled by them, as defined in paragraph (b), within the territory or under the control of the claimant's State. This property may be constituted as a pledge for enemy liabilities under the conditions fixed by paragraph 4 of the Annex hereto. The payment of this compensation may be

made by the Allied or Associated State, and the amount will be debited to Austria.

(f) Whenever a national of an Allied or Associated Power is entitled to property which has been subjected to a measure of transfer in the territory of the former Austrian Empire and expresses a desire for its restitution, his claim for compensation in accordance with paragraph (e) shall be satisfied by the restitution of the said property if it still exists in specie.

In such case Austria shall take all necessary steps to restore the evicted owner to the possession of his property, free from all encumbrances or burdens with which it may have been charged after the liquidation, and to indemnify all third parties injured by the restitution.

If the restitution provided for in this paragraph cannot be effected, private agreements arranged by the intermediation of the Powers concerned or the Clearing Offices provided for in the Annex to Section III may be made, in order to secure that the national of the Allied or Associated Power may secure compensation for the injury referred to in paragraph (e) by the grant of advantages or equivalents which he agrees to accept in place of the property, rights or interests of which he was deprived.

Through restitution in accordance with this Article, the price or the amount of compensation fixed by the application of paragraph (e) will be reduced by the actual value of the property restored, account being taken of compensation in respect of loss of use or deterioration.

(g) The rights conferred by paragraph (ƒ) are reserved to owners who are nationals of Allied or Associated Powers within whose territory legislative measures prescribing the general liquidation of enemy property, rights or interests were not applied before the signature of the Armistice.

(h) Except in cases where, by application of paragraph (f), restitutions in specie have been made, the net proceeds of sales of enemy property, rights or interests wherever situated carried out either by virtue of war legislation, or by application of this Article, and in general all cash assets of enemies, other than proceeds of sales of property or cash assets in Allied or Associated countries