Cunard whenever it may see fit to do so. Further, that as an inherent government right it is for the Hungarian Government to issue such license or withhold it, as it sees fit. Further, that the complaints contained in the letters of the counsel of the International Mercantile Marine Company, which I was instructed to transmit to the foreign office, that no answer had been given by the Hungarian Government to the applications for a license, is specifically denied; and the dates are given of the answers of the Hungarian Government to the communications of that company.

YOUR EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to bring to your excellency's attention and to that of the Royal Hungarian Government the complaint of the International Mercantile Marine Company that unjust discriminations and privileges are accorded by the Royal Hungarian Government to other foreign and competing corporations engaged in the same business, and are refused to the company in question. The International Mercantile Marine Company is an American corporation, and is the owner of two large transatlantic steamers, the Finland and the Kronland, now engaged in the transportation of passengers from Europe to the United States, acting in connection with a Belgian corporation La Société Anonyme de Navigation Belge-Américaine, and performing a common service therewith in the transportation of passengers.

I have had the honor to address to His Excellency Count Goluchowski on several previous occasions complaints on behalf of this common service generally known as the "American Line" (and under that name incorporated as an American corporation) of the treatment their agents have received on the part of the officials of the Royal Hungarian Government, and in particular have called his excellency's attention to numerous cases where travelers intending to make the voyage to America by one or other of the vessels of this line, having already purchased tickets, have been prevented from leaving Hungary by the route they had selected and paid for.

In many instances such tickets have been forcibly taken from these travelers by the Hungarian authorities, and on some occasions, it is alleged, that all the money in their possession has also been confiscated, and their journey either absolutely prevented or very much delayed under circumstances of great expense and hardship to individuals.

In all such cases, so far as any reason is given or can be discovered, it is on account of the desire and intention of the Hungarian Government to force all passenger travel from the Royal dominions to pass by Fiume, and to give an entire monoply of such international passenger traffic to the Cunard Company, a British corporation, to the exclusion of all other competing companies of any and all nations. Applications for a license or permission to carry on business at Fiume on behalf of these two American corporations have received no attention or reply whatever from the Royal Hungarian Government.

I beg to allude on this general subject to my previous letters to His Excellency Count Goluchowski, Nos. 117, 123, 124, 125, 128, 131, and 149, all of which relate to instances of this course of conduct on the part of the Royal Hungarian officials.

Renewed complaints having been made to my government, I have received instructions to submit to your excellency copies of the letters of the International Mercantile Marine Company and the American Line giving in detail the grounds of complaint and instances of this arbitrary and unjust action on the part of the Royal Hungarian officials, and such copies I have the honor to inclose herewith.

I am instructed to make urgent representation to your excellency to the end that the wrongs and discriminations practiced against this highly considered and respected American corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Company and its steamers, apparently in favor of a competing British company may be discontinued by the officials of the Royal Hungarian Government.

While it is not the usage of my Government to lend its assistance to American citizens in procuring licenses or concessions from foreign Governments the present case appears to be an

exceptional one and an entire departure from the spirit of just and fair dealing and friendly feeling which has for so many years marked commercial intercourse between the United States and the Imperial and Royal Dominions, and I am therefore instructed to invoke your excellency's intervention with the Royal Hungarian Government in order that the same privileges and opportunities may be accorded by that Government to steamers of the American Line in the matter of licenses and opportunity of service as are accorded to the vesesls of any other line of steamers of any other country.

I take, etc.,

BELLAMY STORER.

[Inclosure 2.-Translation.]

The Minister of Foreign Affairs to Ambassador Storer.

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MINISTERY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
Vienna, September 11, 1905.

Referring to the esteemed note of July 13, 1905, the undersigned, after having had an interchange of views with the Royal Hungarian ministry of the interior, has the honor to inform his excellency the ambassador of the United States of America, Mr. Bellamy Storer, that the complaints of the International Mercantile Marine Company and the American Line seem to be based on an erroneous interpretation of the Hungarian emigration bill and of paragraph 7 of this law in particular.

According to this paragraph those companies who wish to engage in the transportation of emigrants must obtain beforehand the permission of the ministry of the interior to this end. By such a permission (which the ministry of the interior can grant to native citizens or to foreigners, but without being under obligation to do so) the business for the transportation of emigrants received the character of a licensed business. Since, as a matter of course, neither citizens of this country nor foreigners are entitled to demand as a right the conferring of a license, there can not be seen, in the granting of a license for the transportation of emigrants to the Cunard Steamship Company and in the refusal to grant such a license to the International Mercantile Marine Company and to the American Line a discrimination in favor of the first-named company and against the last-mentioned companies.

Furthermore, the two said American corporations are not entitled to make complaints with regard to the granting of a license to the Cunard Steamship Company and to infer from this granting an analogous right for themselves, as they have been placed on the same basis as the home navigation companies, which did not obtain a license for the transportation of emigrants. With this explanation of the legal side of the question the undersigned thinks to have rectified the fundamental error which has crept into the judgment of this case, and begs to pass to the discussion of the several details of the esteemed note above referred to. First of all it is not correct that the communications of the American line have not been answered. The undersigned, to whom an opportunity was offered to take an insight into the correspondence on this subject of the Royal Hungarian ministry of the interior with the said navigation company, was able to ascertain that the letters of the American line of the 27th and 28th July and 14th October, 1904, were answered on the 15th of November, 1904. A reply to the communication of December 8, 1904, was sent on the 17th of December, 1904, and the application of January 26, 1905, was answered on February 11, 1905.

Likewise it is untrue that a monopoly for the transportation of Hungarian emigrants was given to the Cunard Steamship Company by granting the license. On the contrary, the Hungarian Government is at any time in a position to give licenses also to other transportation companies if it be thought necessary, and in case the issuance of the license in question to other companies should become necessary will consider the application of the American line with the same favor as those of other transportation companies, of course on the supposition that the American line submits to every point of the stipulations of the Hungarian Article IV of the law of 1903.

It is, however, the effort of the Hungarian Government to concentrate the emigration as far as possible at Fiume, as by this means only can an effective supervision and control of emigration be carried through, and because the policy of the transportation (verkehrspolitische) and economical interests of Hungary require it.

As to the cases of complaint enumerated in the list (being an inclosure of the above-mentioned esteemed communication) each one will be examined separately and conscientiously and the result communicated to his excellency the American ambassador.

Finally, the undersigned may be allowed to make the following remarks to the last paragraph of the repeatedly mentioned communication.

During the first five months of 1905 there emigrated from Hungary (not including Croatia and Slavonia) 97,583 persons to the trans-Atlantic countries. Of this number 18,250 traveled on steamers of the Cunard Line. The other 79,333 emigrants have taken the steamers of those companies which, as far as known to this office, are combined without exception to the

International Mercantile Marine Company or united with it and which at the present have no license in Hungary. The undersigned believes that in good conscience he can leave it to the wise judgment of his excellency the American ambassador to decide whether under these circumstances the assertion that the officials of the Hungarian Government act unfairly and partially toward the unlicensed companies is correct.

Furthermore, the undersigned begs to call the attention of his excellency the American ambassador to the circumstance that the dimensions which the emigration from Hungary to the United States has taken produces not only great alarm in Hungary, but it is discussed also in the United States in a way which shows great annoyance. The press of the Union discusses this immigration in a tone which unfortunately is very unjust and sometimes hostile, and the American legislation has followed for some years past an undeniable tendency to increase the severity of immigration regulations.

As the granting of a license to the American line and to a corporation like the International Mercantile Marine Company, which has so many branches and which is united with a great number of other companies, would probably raise the Hungarian emigration to an immeasurable degree, it is difficult to reconcile the present demand of the American Government with the attitude followed up to the present by the American legislation and what is expected also to be followed in the future.

On the other hand, it is clear that the Hungarian Government can not be inclined to contribute to the boundless promotion of emigration by granting new licenses at a moment at which the public opinion of the United States looks with an unfavorable eye upon the emigration from Hungary and when the same might be threatened by an aggravation of American immigration regulations.

Therefore the undersigned hopes that his excellency the American ambassador will weigh considerately the motives by which the Royal Hungarian Government has been guided in its present policy of granting licenses, and will come to the conclusion after consideration of the above said that the reproach made to the Hungarian Government that in the present matter it has allowed itself not to be guided by that spirit of just and friendly feeling which has for so many years marked commercial intercourse between Austria-Hungary and the United States is in every respect unjustified.

The undersigned avails, etc.,

GOLUCHOWSKI.

COMMERCIAL AND TARIFF TREATY BETWEEN AUSTRIAHUNGARY AND GERMANY.

No. 214.]

Ambassador Storer to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN EMBASSY, Vienna, February 17, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to forward by this mail, under separate cover, addressed to the diplomatic bureau, an official copy of the commercial treaty just signed between Austria-Hungary and Germany, which has been already the subject of correspondence with the Department.

I have, etc.,

BELLAMY STORER.

[Inclosure.-Translation.]

His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary, on the one hand, and his Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, in the name of the German Empire, on the other hand, animated by the desire to revise the commercial and tariff convention of December 6, 1891,a existing between Austria-Hungary and the German Empire have decided to conclude an additional convention to this convention and have named for that purpose as plenipotentiaries:

His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary, his chamberlain, actual privy councillor, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary Dear his Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, Ladislaus Szögyény-Marich von Magyar-Szögyén and Szolgaegyhaza.

a Printed in British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 83, p. 169.

His Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia: his minister of state, actual privy councillor, secretary of state of the interior, Arthur Count von Posadowsky-Wehner, and his actual privy councillor, secretary of state of the foreign office, Oswald Baron von Richthofen, who, under reservation of reciprocal ratification, have arrived at the following agreements:

ARTICLE 1.

The separate articles of the existing convention are modified as follows:

I. The following is substituted for Article 3 with the therein-named annexes A and B:4 Upon importation into the German tariff territory of Austrian and Hungarian agricultural and industrial products denoted in Annex A and upon importation into the Austro-Hungarian tariff territory of German agricultural and industrial products denoted in annex B no import duties, respectively, none higher than those fixed in these annexes shall be levied. Should one of the contracting parties place a new domestic tariff or an addition to the domestic tariff on any of the articles mentioned in Annex A, respectively B, of the present convention, a like and corresponding tariff may be placed on a similar article upon importa

tion.

II. The following new paragraph is added to Article 14 of the existing convention: With reference to the dispatch and expedition of goods which are being transported from the territory of the one party into that of the other or are in transit through the latter, in so far as they are forwarded therein by shipping enterprises on rivers and canals and with reference to those transportation charges of these enterprises which are instituted by governmental action for specified goods, the contracting parties agree to make no regulations by which such advantages are not granted to goods of the other party.

III. The following stipulation is substituted for the second and third paragraphs of Arti

cle 16:

The contracting parties assure to each other reciprocally every possible assistance in the matter of railway tariff, also especially in applications for the preparation of direct passenger and freight tariffs, according to actual requirements.

IV. The following clause is added to Article 17:

They will work to that end that the needs of the through transit will be given the most practicable consideration by the preparation of interlocking train schedules for passenger and freight service.

V. The fifth paragraph of Article 19 is worded as follows:

Stock companies and other commercial, industrial, or financial companies, including insurance companies, which are domiciled in the territories of one of the contracting parties and which exist legally according to its laws shall be entitled in the territories of the other party also upon observance of the respective laws and regulations there in force to enforce all their rights and especially to conduct suits at law before the courts as plaintiffs or defendants. The question whether and to what extent such companies can acquire real estate and other property in the territories of the other party is to be decided according to the laws in force in these territories. As to the permission to conduct their business in the territories of the other party, the legal and regulating ordinances there in force must be applied. In every case the said companies shall enjoy in the territories of the other party the same rights which are accorded to similar companies of a third country which have been recognized as legally existing or which will in the future be accorded to them.

VI. The following new paragraph is added to Article 20:

With reference to the immunities in the matter of direct taxation, an agreement exists that the consuls of both parties shall profit thereby only if they do not possess the citizenship of that state in which they exercise their functions and not in the broader sense as the diplomatic representatives of the contracting parties.

ARTICLE 2.

The following new article is inserted in the existing convention:

Article 23a. If a difference of opinion occurs between the contracting parties over the interpretation or application of the tariff's of the present convention (annexes A and B) a and of the additional stipulations of these tariffs, or over the application of the most favored nation clause in reference to the actual application of other treaty tariffs which are in force, it shall upon demand of either of the parties be decided by arbitration.

The tribunal of arbitration is formed in such a manner that each party appoints from its nationals two qualified persons as arbitrators and that poth parties choose a national of a third friendly state as umpire. Both parties reserve the right to come to an agreement in

a Annexes A and B, containing the German and Austro-Hungarian tariffs, not printed. Copy deposited in the library of the Department of State.

advance and in a specified period of time about the person who is to be appointed as umpire in the specific case. In the case and on condition of a special agreement the contracting parties will submit differences of opinion other than those denoted in paragraph 1 over the interpretation and application of the present convention to arbitral decision.

ARTICLE 3.

Annex C of the existing convention is modified as follows:

I. In the list of articles under Figure 3, which under certain assumptions may by indirect means have free entry or export, strike out the words "beehives with live bees" and add before "peat" the words "firewood, coal."

II. Figure 5 is worded as follows:

5. For cattle brought temporarily for work from one territory into the other and returned from work from the latter to the former, likewise for agricultural machines and implements brought for temporary use from one frontier district into the other and returned after use to the former, further, for cattle imported and reexported for weighing, free entry is granted under the registry method of existing boards of control.

III. Figure 8 is worded as follows:

8. The concessions existing in the traffic between the inhabitants of both frontier districts relative to articles for personal use in repairs or mechanical trades, which is to be classed with domestic hired labor and which may extend also to the dyeing of yarns and fabrics, are continued. In the manufacturing traffic with materials for the manufacture of clothing free entry is also extended to trimmings used in the manufacture.

IV. The following new number is added:

11. Curds (Topfen) and gypsum which originated in the German frontier district and which is introduced into the Austrian frontier district for use therein are admitted free of duty in Austria-Hungary. Equal treatment is given to onions and garlic from the neighborhood of Zittau which are brought into the Bohemian frontier districts by wagon traffic. Cranberries which originate in the Austrian frontier districts and are imported into the German frontier districts for consumption therein are admitted free of duty in the German Empire.

Each of the contracting parties reserves the right to couple these favors, as far as they concern its territory, with the performance of specific conditions.

ARTICLE 4.

The tariff cartel in force (Annex D of the existing convention), with the autonomous modifications for its execution pertaining thereto, is continued in force without prejudice to a reorganization of the latter.

ARTICLE 5.

The final protocol of the existing convention is modified as follows:

I. The following figure (2a) is added to the stipulations of Article 1 of the existing con

vention:

2. The transit of weapons, munitions, explosive materials, as well as goods of every sort of which the transit state has a monopoly, shall be delayed as little as possible.

If a special permit for the said articles is required for their transit, a decision to grant or refuse a permit shall be rendered by the competent authority as soon as possible.

When munitions or explosive materials are reported for transit, samples of specimens can, as a rule, be subjected to examination only at the first transit of such articles, preparations, etc. A repeated examination can take place only in cases of urgent doubt, and only then when shipments are not covered by regular certificates from the competent authorities of the country of origin about the quality of the goods. These certificates must be attached to the application for the grant of the permit for transit. The contracting parties will come to an understanding in regard to the authorities which shall be competent to issue certificates in the country of origin, as well as in regard to the regulations corresponding to the existing state of technics which are to be observed in issuing them. The transit country has the privilege, according to its judgment, to take from the shipments covered by such certificates specimens and samples without detaining the shipments themselves. Whenever an abuse of these privileges is established, the transit country has the privilege to prescribe corresponding restrictions of the same.

II. Figure 4 of the stipulations pertaining to Article 1 of the existing convention is worded as follows:

4. The contracting parties will communicate all prohibitions and restrictions upon importation, exportation, or transit issued against each other.

III. The following additions are made to the stipulations of Article 1 of the existing convention: