The Government of each of the High Contracting Parties shall furnish free of charge the necessary exequatur of such consular officers of the other as present a regular commission signed by the chief executive of the appointing state and under its great seal; and it shall issue to a subordinate or substitute consular officer duly appointed by an accepted superior consular officer with the approbation of his Government, or by any other competent officer of that Government, such documents as according to the laws of the respective countries shall be requisite for the exercise by the appointee of the consular function. On the exhibition of an exequatur, or other document issued in lieu thereof to such subordinate, such consular officer shall be permitted to enter upon his duties and to enjoy the rights, privileges and immunities granted by this Treaty.

ARTICLE XIV. Consular officers, nationals of the state by which they are appointed, shall be exempt from arrest except when charged with the commission of offenses locally designated as crimes other than misdemeanors and subjecting the individual guilty thereof to punishment. Such officers shall be exempt from military billetings, and from service of any military or naval, administrative or police character whatsoever.

In criminal cases the attendance at the trial by a consular officer as a witness may be demanded by the prosecution or defense. The demand shall be made with all possible regard for the consular dignity and the duties of the office; and there shall be compliance on the part of the consular officer.

Consular officers shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts in the state which receives them in civil cases, subject to the proviso, however, that when the officer is a national of the state which appoints him and is engaged in no private occupation for gain, his testimony shall be taken orally or in writing at his residence or office and with due regard for his convenience. The officer should, however, voluntarily give his testimony at the trial whenever it is possible to do so without serious interference with his official duties.

ARTICLE XV. Consular officers, including employees in a consulate, nationals of the State by which they are appointed other than those engaged in private occupations for gain within the State where they exercise their functions shall be exempt from all taxes, National, State, Provincial, and Municipal, levied upon their persons or upon their property, except taxes levied on account of the possession or ownership of immovable property situated in, or income derived from sources within the territories of the State within which they exercise their functions. All consular officers and employees, nationals of the State appointing them, shall be exempt from the payment of taxes on the salary, fees or wages received by them in compensation for their consular services.

Lands and buildings situated in the territories of either High Contracting Party, of which the other High Contracting Party is the legal or equitable owner and which are used exclusively for diplomatic or consular purposes by that owner, shall be exempt from taxation of every kind, National, State, Provincial and Municipal, other than assessments levied for services or local public improvements by which the premises are benefited.

ARTICLE XVI. Consular officers may place over the outer door of their respective offices the arms of their State with an appropriate inscription designating the official office. Such officers may also hoist the flag of their country on their offices including those situated in the capitals of the two countries. They may likewise hoist such flag over any boat or vessel employed in the exercise of the consular function.

The consular offices and archives shall at all times be inviolable. They shall under no circumstances be subject to invasion by any authorities of any character within the country where such offices are located. Nor shall the authorities under any pretext make any examination or seizure of papers or other property deposited within a consular office. Consular offices shall not be used as places of asylum. No consular officer shall be required to produce official archives in court or testify as to their contents.

Upon the death, incapacity, or absence of a consular officer having no subordinate consular officer at his post, secretaries or chancellors, whose official character may have previously been made known to the government of the State where the consular function was exercised, may temporarily exercise the consular function of the deceased or incapacitated or absent consular officer; and while so acting shall enjoy all the rights, prerogatives and immunities granted to the incumbent.

ARTICLE XVII. Consular officers, nationals of the State by which they are appointed, may, within their respective consular districts, address the authorities, National, State, Provincial or Municipal, for the purpose of protecting their countrymen in the enjoyment of their rights accruing by treaty or otherwise. Complaint may be made for the infraction of those rights. Failure upon the part of the proper authorities to grant redress or to accord protection may justify interposition through the diplomatic channel, and in the absence of a diplomatic representative, a consul general or the consular officer stationed at the capital may apply directly to the government of the country.

ARTICLE XVIII. Consular officers may, in pursuance of the laws of their own country, take, at any appropriate place within their respective districts, the depositions of any occupants of vessels of their own country, or of any national of, or of any person having permanent residence within the territories of, their own country. Such officers may draw up, attest, certify and authenticate unilateral acts, deeds, and testamentary dispositions of their countrymen, and

also contracts to which a countryman is a party. They may draw up, attest, certify and authenticate written instruments of any kind purporting to express or embody the conveyance or encumbrance of property of any kind within the territory of the State by which such officers are appointed, and unilateral acts, deeds, testamentary dispositions and contracts relating to property situated, or business to be transacted, within the territories of the State by which they are appointed, embracing unilateral acts, deeds, testamentary dispositions or agreements executed solely by nationals of the State within which such officers exercise their functions.

Instruments and documents thus executed and copies and translations thereof, when duly authenticated under his official seal by the consular officer, shall be received as evidence in the territories of the contracting parties as original documents or authenticated copies, as the case may be, and shall have the same force and effect as if drawn by and executed before a notary or other public officer duly authorized in the country by which the consular officer was appointed; provided, always that such documents shall have been drawn and executed in conformity to the laws and regulations of the country where they are designed to take effect.

ARTICLE XIX. In case of the death of a national of either High Contracting Party in the territory of the other without having in the territory of his decease any known heirs or testamentary executors by him appointed, the competent local authorities shall at once inform the nearest consular officer of the State of which the deceased was a national of the fact of his death, in order that necessary information may be forwarded to the parties interested.

In case of the death of a national of either of the High Contracting Parties without will or testament, in the territory of the other High Contracting Party, the consular officer of the State of which the deceased was a national and within whose district the deceased made his home at the time of death, shall, so far as the laws of the country permit and pending the appointment of an administrator and until letters of administration have been granted, be deemed qualified to take charge of the property left by the decedent for the preservation and protection of the same. Such consular officer shall have the right to be appointed as administrator within the discretion of a tribunal or other agency controlling the administration of estates provided the laws of the place where the estate is administered so permit.

Whenever a consular officer accepts the office of administrator of the estate of a deceased countryman, he subjects himself as such to the jurisdiction of the tribunal or other agency making the appointment for all necessary purposes to the same extent as a national of the country where he was appointed.

ARTICLE XX. A consular officer of either High Contracting Party may in behalf of his nonresident countrymen collect and receipt for their distributive shares derived from estates in process of probate or accruing under the provisions of so-called Workmen's Compensation Laws or other like statutes, for transmission through channels prescribed by his Government to the proper distributees.

ARTICLE XXI. Each of the High Contracting Parties agrees to permit the entry free of all duty and without examination of any kind, of all furniture, equipment and supplies intended for official use in the consular offices of the other, and to extend to such consular officers of the other and their families and suites as are its nationals, the privilege of entry free of duty of their personal or household effects actually in use which accompany such consular officers, their families or suites, or which arrive shortly thereafter, provided, nevertheless, that no article, the importation of which is prohibited by the law of either of the High Contracting Parties, may be brought into its territories.

It is understood, however, that this privilege shall not be extended to consular officers who are engaged in any private occupation for gain in the countries to which they are accredited, save with respect to governmental supplies.

ARTICLE XXII. Subject to any limitation or exception hereinabove set forth, or hereafter to be agreed upon, the territories of the High Contracting Parties to which the provisions of this Treaty extend shall be understood to comprise all areas of land, water, and air over which the Parties claim and exercise dominion as sovereign thereof, except the Panama Canal Zone.

ARTICLE XXIII. Nothing in the present Treaty shall be construed to limit or restrict in any way the rights, privileges and advantages accorded to the United States or its nationals or to Austria or its nationals by the Treaty between the United States and Austria establishing friendly relations, concluded on August 24, 1921.

ARTICLE XXIV. The present treaty shall remain in full force for the term of six years from the date of the exchange of ratifications, on which date it shall begin to take effect in all of its provisions.

If within one year before the expiration of the aforesaid period of six years neither High Contracting Party notifies to the other an intention of modifying, by change or omission any of the provisions of any of the articles in this Treaty or of terminating it upon the expiration of the aforesaid period, the Treaty shall remain in full force and effect after the aforesaid period and until one year from such a time as either of the High Contracting Parties shall have notified to the other an intention of modifying or terminating the Treaty.

ARTICLE XXV. The present Treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged at Vienna as soon as possible. IN WITNESS WHEREOF the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same and have affixed their seals hereto.

DONE in duplicate in the English and German languages at Vienna, this 19th day of June 1928.

ALBERT HENRY WASHBURN

[SEAL]

SEIPEL

[SEAL]

[A Senate reservation on February 11, 1929, was accepted by the Governments of the United States and Austria in an exchange of notes printed infra.]

Treaty Series No. 838

The American Minister in Austria (Stockton) to the Austrian ViceChancellor and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs (Schober)

VIENNA, January 20, 1931.

EXCELLENCY: Referring to the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights signed by the United States and Austria on June 19, 1928, I have the honor to inform you that the United States Senate on February 11, 1929, gave its advice and consent to the ratification of the said Treaty in a resolution, as follows:

"Resolved (two-thirds of the Senators present concurring therein), That the Senate advise and consent to the ratification of Executive B, Seventieth Congress, second session, a treaty of friendship, commerce, and consular rights with Austria, signed at Vienna on June 19, 1928, subject to the following reservation and understanding to be set forth in an exchange of notes between the high contracting parties so as to make it plain that this condition is understood and accepted by each of them:

That the sixth paragraph of Article VII shall remain in force for twelve months from the date of exchange of ratifications, and, if not then terminated on ninety days' previous notice, shall remain in force until either of the high contracting parties shall enact legislation inconsistent therewith, when the same shall automatically lapse at the end of sixty days from such enactment, and on such lapse each high contracting party shall enjoy all the rights which it would have possessed had such paragraph not been embraced in this treaty."

It will be observed that by this resolution the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the Treaty are given subject to a certain reservation and understanding.