Page:Lltreaties-ustbv001.pdf/890

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MULTILATERAL AGREEMENTS, 1776-1917
  1. Any new annual government grant that may be made shall periodically, on fixed dates, be paid in full on the Conservancy Board's account.
  2. The Conservancy Tax on Imports and Exports referred to in Article 4, shall be collected by the Commissioner of Customs and shall periodically, on fixed dates, be paid to the Conservancy Board's account.
  3. The Conservancy Board will disburse conservancy funds for the execution of the necessary works and for the maintenance of staff and office at its discretion. Cheques will be cashed on the signature of any two members.

4. The several Chambers of Commerce and Associations representing the Commercial interests of Shanghai, having agreed to the raising of a tax for conservancy purposes, consisting of 3% of the Customs Duties and, in the case of duty-free goods, of 1½ per mille of value, the tax shall be dealt with, as provided in Article 3 (d), as soon as such formalities as are necessary to regularize it have been completed and notified to the Conservancy Board by the Ministers.

Note: This tax is based generally on the figures given in Mr. Commissioner Merrill's Memorandum of the 15th April, 1910, in order to provide the Hk. Taels 300,000 which is Mr. Merrill's estimate of the sum necessary for the modest programme set forth therein.

5. For all contracts in connection with the works, and for the purchase of material or machinery, etc., public tenders will be invited, and the tender offering the most advantageous conditions accepted.

6. The Conservancy Board shall appoint, at its discretion, and shall control the staff necessary for the work to be effected, including the Secretary and Engineer-in-Charge.

7. The general jurisdiction of the Conservancy Board extends over the Whangpu from the Yangtse to its tidal limit, that is to say within those limits—between the high water lines—no operation which may possibly affect the regimen of the river shall be undertaken without the Board's consent, nor without such consent shall pontoons or hulks connected to the shore be established.

All applications for the Board's consent for such works, etc., on the Whangpu below the upper harbor limit, shall be made to the Harbor Master and be replied to by him as heretofore.

The control of the River Police, of sanitary arrangements, of aids to navigation and pilotage, remain as heretofore in the hands of the Maritime Customs.

8. Under the Conservancy Agreement of 1905, provision that the Conservancy funds benefit by the sale of crown lands, insofar as such sales were rendered justifiable by the conservancy scheme, was left undefined. During the operation of that Agreement large quantities of crown land with the con-