However, in case of plague or cholera, the merchandise and articles enumerated below may be subjected to disinfection or even prohibited entry, independently of any proof that they are or are not contaminated:
1. Body linen, clothing worn (wearing apparel), and bedding which has been used.
When these articles are being transported as baggage or as a result of a change of residence (household goods), they shall not be prohibited and are subject to the provisions of article 20.
Packages left by soldiers and sailors and returned to their country after death are treated the same as the articles comprised in the first paragraph of No. 1.
2. Rags (including those for making paper), with the exception, as to cholera, of compressed rags transported as wholesale merchandise in hooped bales.
Fresh waste coming directly from spinning mills, weaving mills, manufactories, or bleacheries; artificial wools (shoddy), and fresh paper trimmings shall not be forbidden.
Art. 14. The transit of the merchandise and articles specified under Nos. 1 and 2 of the preceding article shall not be prohibited if they are so packed that they can not be manipulated en route.
Likewise, when the merchandise or articles are transported in such a manner that it is impossible for them to have been in contact with contaminated articles en route, their transit across an infected territorial area shall not constitute an obstacle to their entry into the country of destination.
Art. 15. The merchandise and articles specified under Nos. 1 and 2 of article 13 shall not be subject to the application of the measures prohibiting entry if it is proven to the authorities of the country that they were shipped at least five days before the beginning of the epidemic.
Art. 16. The mode and place of disinfection, as well as the methods to be employed for the destruction of rats, insects, and mosquitoes, shall be determined by the authorities of the country of destination. These operations should be performed in such a manner as to cause the least possible injury to the articles. Clothing, old rags, infected materials for dressing wounds, papers, and other articles of little value may be destroyed by fire.
It shall devolve upon each Nation to determine the question as to the possible payment of damages as a result of the disinfection and destruction of the articles mentioned above and of the destruction of rats, insects, and mosquitoes.
If, on the occasion of the taking of measures for the destruction of rats, insects, and mosquitoes on board vessels, the health authorities should levy a tax either directly or through a society or private individual, the rate of such tax must be fixed by a tariff published in advance and so calculated that no
