ARBITRATION CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL The President of the United States of Brazil and His Majesty the Emperor of China, desiring to conclude an arbitration convention in application of the principles enounced in Articles 15 to 19 and 21 of the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, signed at The Hague on the 29th July, 1899, and in Articles 37 to 40 and 42 of the Convention signed in the same city of The Hague on the 18th October, 1907, have named as their plenipotentiaries, that is to say: The President of the United States of Brazil, Mr. M. C. Goncalves Pereira, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China and to Japan; His Majesty, the Emperor of China, Mr. Lien Fang, Vice-President of the Board of Foreign Affairs; Who, being duly authorized, have agreed upon the following articles: ARTICLE I. Differences which may arise of a legal nature or relating to the interpretation of treaties existing between the two Contracting Parties, and which it may not have been possible to settle by diplomacy, shall be referred to the Permanent Court of Arbitration established at The Hague by the Convention of the 29th July, 1899, provided, nevertheless, that they do not affect the vital interests, the independence, or the honor of the two Contracting States, and do not concern the interests of Third Parties: it being further understood that, if one of the two Contracting Parties prefer it, all arbitration resulting from the present Convention shall be submitted to a Head of a State, to a friendly Government, or one or more arbitrators chosen outside the list of the Tribunal of the Hague. ARTICLE II. In each individual case the High Contracting Parties before appealing to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, to other arbitrators or to a sole arbitrator, shall conclude a special agreement defining clearly the matter in dispute, the scope of the powers of the arbitrator or arbitrators and the periods to be fixed for the formation of the arbitral tribunal or the choice of an arbitrator or of arbitrators, as well as the rules of the procedure. It is understood that with respect to the United States of Brazil, such special agreement will be made by the President of the Republic with the consent of the National Congress, and with respect to the Chinese Empire, by the Emperor in such form and under such conditions as he shall deem necessary or convenient. ARTICLE III. The present Convention shall remain in force for the period of five years from the date of the exchange of ratifications. If it is not denounced six months before the expiration of this period it will continue to remain in force for a new period of five years and so successively. ARTICLE IV. The present Convention will be ratified after the legal formalities in the two countries have been observed, and the ratifications will be exchanged at Rio de Janeiro as soon as possible. The present convention is drawn up in the Portuguese, Chinese and French languages. Four copies have been prepared. In case of disagreement, the French text alone shall be authoritative. In testimony whereof we, the above-named plenipotentiaries, have signed the present convention and affixed our seals thereto. Done at Peking the third of August, one thousand nine hundred and nine, corresponding to the eighteenth day of the sixth moon of the first year of Hsüan Turg. TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL AND THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY, MODIFYING THEIR FRONTIERS ON LAKE MERIM AND THE JAGUARÃO RIVER AND ESTABLISHING GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION IN THOSE PLACES. The Republe of the United States of Brazil and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, with a view to render closer and closer their ancient friendship and to develop the relations of commerce and neighborliness between the two peoples, have resolved, upon the initiative of the Brazilian Government, to revise and modify the stipulations relative to the frontier lines on Lake Merim and the Jaguarão River, and also, as proposed by the Oriental Government since December, 1851, those relative to the navigation on said lake and river, the stipulations mentioned being contained in the Boundary Treaty of October 12, 1851, in that of May 15, 1852, and in the Agreement of April 22, 1853, the first signed at the city of Rio de Janeiro and the other two at the city of Montevideo; And for this purpose have appointed Plenipotentiaries, to-wit: The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, Doctor José Maria da Silva Paranhos do Rio Branco, its Minister of State for Foreign Relations; and The President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Mr. Rufino T. Dominguez, its Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Brazil; Who, after exchanging their full powers, which were found in good and proper form, have agreed on the following articles: ARTICLE I. The Republic of the United States of Brazil cedes to the Oriental Republic of Uruguay: 1. From the mouth of the stream San Miguel up to the Jaguarão River, the part of Lake Merim included between its western shore and the new frontier which is to cross longitudinally the waters of the lake according to Article III of the present treaty; 2. On the river Jaguarão, the part of the river territory included between the right, or southern, bank and the dividing line hereinafter determined, in Article IV. ARTICLE II. The cession of the rights of sovereignty of Brazil, based in the beginning upon the possession she acquired and has maintained, since 1801, of the waters and navigation of Lake Merim and the Jaguarão River, and, afterward, established and confirmed solemnly in the pacts of 1851, 1852 and 1853, is made subject to the following conditions, which the Oriental Republic of Uruguay accepts: 1. Except in case of a subsequent agreement, Brazilian and Oriental vessels may navigate and engage in commerce in the waters of the Jaguarão River and Lake Merim as is hereinafter, in other articles, declared. 2. The Oriental Republic of Uruguay shall maintain and respect, in accordance with the principles of the Civil Law, property rights acquired by Brazilians or foreigners in the islands and islets which as an effect of the new determination of frontiers shall cease to belong to Brazil. 3. Neither of the High Contracting Parties shall establish forts or batteries on the banks of the lake, on those of the Jaguarão River, nor on any of the islands which belong to them in these waters. ARTICLE III. Beginning at the mouth of the stream San Miguel, where the Quarto Marco Grande is situated, placed there by the Mixed Demarcation Commission of 1853, the new frontier shall cross legnthwise Lake Merim as far up as the point Rabotieso, on the Uruguayan shore, along a broken line, marked by as many straight courses as may be necessary to maintain the equal distance between the principal points of the two shores. From the latitude of the said point, Rabotieso, the dividing line shall incline to the northwest so far as may be necessary to pass between the islands called of the Taquary, leaving on the Brazilian side the most eastern island and those of the islets which are next to it; and thence it will continue until it reaches, in the neighborhood of the point Parobé, also situated on the Uruguayan shore, the deepest channel, continuing along it until opposite the point Muniz, on the Uruguayan shore, and the point of the Latins, or of Fanfa, on the Brazilian shore. From this intermediate point, and passing between the point Muniz and the Brazilian island of Juncal, it shall extend to the mouth of the Jaguarão, wherein are situated, on the left, or Brazilian, bank, the Quinto Marco Grande of 1853, and on the right, or Uruguayan, bank, the intermediate Sexto Marco. ARTICLE IV. From the mouth of the Jaguarão the frontier shall ascend by the thalweg of that river up to the confluence of the stream Lagoões, on the right bank. From this point upwards the dividing line shall follow the mid-distance between the banks of the Jaguarão, thereafter, the mid-distance between the banks of the Jaguarão Chico, or Guabijú, at whose confluence is the Sexto Marco Grande, of 1853, and, finally, it shall ascend by the bed of the stream of the Mina, marked by the Setimo and Oitavo Marcos (intermediate). ARTICLE V. A Mixed Commission, appointed by the two Governments within the term of one year after the exchange of ratifications of the present treaty, shall prepare the plan of the part of Lake Merim which extends to the south of the point, Juncal, and also the plan of the Jaguarão River from its mouth to that of the stream Lagoões, making the necessary soundings, beside the topographical and geodetical operations indispensable for the determination of the new frontier and buoying it off in the lake according to the most convenient methods. ARTICLE VI. The navigation of the Lake Merim and the Jaguarão River is free to the merchant ships of the two nations: and for the Uruguayans the transit, also, is free between the ocean and Lake Merim, through the Brazilian waters of the river San Gonçalo, the lagoon dos Patos and the bar of the Rio Grande de São Pedro, Brazilian and Uruguayan ships remaining subject, in the jurisdictional waters of each republic, to the fiscal and police regulations which they may or shall have established and the Uruguayan ships in transit being subject to the same taxes as the Brazilian. Merchant ships engaged in this navigation may only while in the other country communicate with the land, save in the case of vis major or special permission, in those places in which there are customs posts or fiscal or police stations. ARTICLE VII. It is understood and declared that in the freedom of navigation for commerce between the two countries is not included the transportation of merchandise from port to port of the same country or coastwise trade, which shall continue in each of the two states subject to their respective laws. ARTICLE VIII. Within the term of six months from the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, each one of the High Contracting Parties shall communicate to the other the port or ports qualified or proposed to be qualified for commerce on the Jaguarão River or Lake Merim; and when thereafter it is decided to qualify one or more others it shall give the other party six months notice of the fact, with a view to the adoption of suitable measures to prevent contraband. |