Page 52 - High_Court_Of_Sikkim_Museum_ebook_Final_2024

SIKKIM – TIBET CONVENTION, 05.12.1893 — TRADE

I. A trade-mart shall be established at Yatung on the Tibetan side of the frontier,
and shall be open to all British subjects for purposes of the trade from the first day of
May 1894. The Government of India shall be free to send officers to reside at Yatung
to watch the conditions of British trade at that mart.

II. British subjects trading at Yatung shall be at liberty to travel to and fro between
the frontier and Yatung, to reside at Yatung, and to rent houses and godowns for
their own accommodation and the storage of their goods. The Chinese Government
undertake that suitable buildings for the above purposes shall be provided for British
subjects, and also that a special and fitting residence shall be provided for the
officer or officers appointed by the Government of India under Regulation I to reside
at Yatung. British subjects shall be at liberty to sell their goods to whomsoever they
please, to purchase native commodities in kind or in money, to hire transport of any
kind and in general to conduct their business transactions in conformity with local
usage, and without any vexatious restrictions. Such British subjects shall receive
efficient protection for their persons and property. At Lang-Jo and Ta-Chun,
between the frontier and Yatung, where rest houses have been built by the Tibetan
authorities, British subjects can break their journey in consideration of a daily rent.

III. Import and export trade in the following articles-arms, ammunitions, military
stores, salts, liquors, and intoxicating or narcotic drugs may at the option of the either
Government be entirely prohibited, or permitted only on such conditions as either
Government on their own side may think fit to impose.

IV. Goods, other than goods of descriptions enumerated in the Regulation III,
entering Tibet from the British India, across the Sikkim-Tibet frontier, or vice versa;
whatever their origin, shall be exempt from duty for the period of five years
commencing from the date of opening of Yatung to trade; but after the expiration
of this term, if found desirable, a tariff may be mutually agreed upon and enforced.

Indian tea may be imported into Tibet at a rate of duty not exceeding that at which
Chinese tea is imported into England, but trade in Indian tea shall not be engaged
in during the five years for which other commodities are exempt.

V. All goods on arrival at Yatung, whether from British India or Tibet, must be
reported at the customs stations there for examination, and the report must give full
particulars of the description, quantity and value of the goods.

VI. In the event of trade disputes arising between British and Chinese or Tibetan
subjects in Tibet, they shall be enquired into and settled in personal conference by
the political officer for Sikkim and the Chinese frontier officer. The object of personal
conference being to ascertain facts and do justice; where there is a divergence of
views the law the country to which the defendant belongs shall guide.

37