sufficient to fulfil the intentions of the High Contracting Parties.
Commercial Treaties.Art. IV. The union of the Ionian Islands to the Hellenic Kingdom shall not involve any change as to the advantages conceded to foreign commerce and navigation in virtue of Treaties and Conventions concluded by foreign Powers with the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, in her character of Protector of the United States of the Ionian Islands.
All the engagements which result from the said transactions, as well as from the regulations actually in force, shall be maintained and strictly observed as hitherto.
In consequence, it is expressly understood that foreign vessels and commerce in Ionian ports, and, reciprocally, Ionian vessels and commerce in foreign ports, as well as the navigation between Ionian ports and the ports of Greece, shall continue to be subject to the same treatment, and placed under the same conditions, as before the union of the Ionian Islands to Greece[1].
Religious equality.Art. V. The union of the United States of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece shall in no wise invalidate the principles established by the existing legislation of those Islands with regard to freedom of worship and religious toleration; accordingly the rights and immunities established in matters of religion by Chapters 1 and 5 of the Constitutional Charter of the United States of the Ionian Islands, and specifically the recognition of the Orthodox Greek Church as the dominant religion in those Islands; the entire liberty of worship granted to the Established Church of the Protecting Power; and the perfect toleration promised to other Christian communions,—shall, after the union, be maintained in their full force and effect.
The special protection guaranteed to the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the advantages of which that Church is actually in possession, shall be equally maintained; and the subjects belonging to that communion shall enjoy in the
- ↑ This Article was interpreted by the protocol of the sitting of 25th January, 1864, of the Conference of the five Powers, and is repeated in Art. 3 of the Treaty of 29th March, 1864.
