54 STAT.] LIBERIA-CONSULAR OFFICERS-OCT. 7 , 1938 the State in which they exercise their consular functions; to assist them in proceedings before or relations with such authorities; and to inquire into any incidents which have occurred within the consular district affecting the interests of their countrymen. Nationals of either of the High Contracting Parties shall have the right at all times to communicate with the consular officers of their country. ARTICLE VII Consular officers, in pursuance of the laws of their own country may (a) take, at any appropriate place within their respective dis- tricts, the depositions of any occupants of vessels of their own coun- try, or of any national of, or of any person having permanent residence within the territory of, their own country; (b) draw up, attest, certify and authenticate unilateral acts, translations, deeds, and testamentary dispositions of their countrymen, and also contracts to which a countryman is a party; (c) authenticate signatures; (d) draw up, attest, certify and authenticate written instruments of any kind purporting to express or embody the conveyance or encum- brance of property of any kind within the territory of the State by which such officers are appointed, and unilateral acts, deeds, testa- mentary 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 trans- lations thereof, when duly authenticated by the consular officer, under his official seal, shall be received as evidence in the territories of the High Contracting Parties as original documents or authenti- cated 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. 1755 Notarial functions. Authentications, etc. Acceptance as evi- dence. Effect. ARTICLE VIII In case of the death of a national of either High Contracting Party in the territory of the other without having in the locality 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 informa- tion may be forwarded to the parties interested. In case of the death of a national of either of the High Contract- ing Parties without will or testament whereby he has appointed testamentary executors, in the territory of the other High Contract- ing Party, the consular officer of the State of which the deceased was Notice of death In one country of a na- tional of the other. Provisional holding of intestate property.
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