71

A.—2

Article XII. In the examination which they have to make in accordance with the foregoing stipulations, the authorities of the State applied to shall admit as entirely valid evidence the sworn depositions or statement of witnesses taken in the other State, or copies thereof, and likewise the warrants and sentences issued therein, provided such documents are signed or certified by a Judge, Magistrate, or officer of such State, and are authenticated by the oath of some witness, or by being sealed with the official seal of a British Secretary of State, or of the Chancellor of the Swiss Confederation. Article XIII. If sufficient evidence for the extradition be not produced within two months from the date of the apprehension of the fugitive, he shall be set at liberty. Article XIV. All articles seized, which were in the possession of the person to be surrendered at the time of his apprehension, shall, if the competent authority of State applied to for the extradition has ordered the delivery thereof, be given up when the extradition takes place, and the said delivery shall extend not merely to the stolen articles, but to everything that may serve as a proof of the crime. Article XV. The Contracting Parties renounce any claim for the re-imbursement of the expenses incurred by them in the arrest and maintenance of the person to be surrendered, and his conveyance to the frontiers of the State from which he is required; they reciprocally agree to bear such expenses themselves. Article XVI. The stipulations of the present Treaty shall be applicable to the colonies and foreign possessions of Her Britannic Majesty. The requisition for the arrest and surrender of a fugitive criminal who has taken refuge in any of such colonies or foreign possessions shall be made through the Swiss Consul-General in. London to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who shall proceed in conformity with the provisions of the present Treaty and the laws of the land. Her Britannic Majesty shall, however, be at liberty to make special arrangements in the British colonies and foreign possessions for the surrender of such individuals as shall have committed in Switzerland any of the crimes hereinafore mentioned, who may take refuge within such • colonies and foreign possessions, on the basis, as nearly as may be, of the provisions of the present Treaty. The requisition for the surrender of a fugitive criminal from any colony or foreign possession of Her Britannic Majesty shall be governed by the rules laid clown in the preceding articles of the present Treaty. Article XVII. The present Treaty shall come into force ten days after its publication in conformity with the forms prescribed by the laws of the High Contracting Parties. It may be terminated by either of the High Contracting Parties, but shall remain in force for six months after notice has been given for its termination. The Treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Berne, in four weeks, or sooner if possible. In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their arms. Done at Berne, the thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four. (1.5.) A. G. G. Bonar. (1.5.) J. M. Knusel. And whereas a Protocol amending Article XVI. of the aforesaid Treaty was signed by the Plenipotentiaries of Her Majesty and of the Swiss Confederation on the twenty-eighth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, which Protocol is in the following terms: — The undersigned Plenipotentiaries of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, having met in conference, have taken into their consideration the following subject:— They have directed their attention to the fact that the second paragraph of the sixteenth Article of the Treaty, which stipulates that the requisition for the arrest of a fugitive criminal who has taken refuge in any of the colonies or foreign possessions of Her Britannic Majesty shall be made through the Swiss Consul-General in London to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was not in accordance with the law of England, and they have consequently resolved to declare that the second paragraph of that Article, beginning : " The requisition for the arrest," and concluding with, " and the laws of the land/ shall be null and void., and in lieu thereof the following words shall be substituted: