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The functions of a councilor and of a member of the Chamber of Representatives or of the Senate are incompatible.

The officials of the colonial administration in active service cannot take part in the council.

ART. 22. The colonial council shall consider all questions which the King may submit to it.

Except in case of urgency, the Colonial Council shall be consulted upon all proposed decrees. The drafts of the decrees shall be submitted to it by the King accompanied by a statement of the reasons therefor.

The council shall give its advice, in the form of an argumentative report within the period fixed by its organic law. The report shall indicate the number of the opposition, as well as their reasons therefor.

If the draft of the decree submitted for the King's signature does not accord with the recommendations of the council, the Minister of Colonies shall add to it an expression of his views.

If the council does not determine the matter within the period fixed by its organic law, the decree may be issued by the Minister of Colonies, accompanied by a statement of the reasons therefor.

The report of the Colonial Council and eventually the report of the Minister of Colonies shall be published at the same time with the decree.

The decrees issued in cases of urgency shall be submitted to the council within ten days from their date of issuance; the reasons for the urgency should be indicated to it. The report of the council shall be published not later than one month after the transmission of the decree. ART. 23. The Colonial Council shall ask from the Government all the instructions which it may judge necessary in the prosecution of its work. It may express its views to it.

CHAPTER V.

Concerning foreign relations.

ART. 24. The King shall make all treaties relative to the colonies. The stipulations of article 68 of the Belgian Constitution relative to treaties shall be applied to the treaties relating to the colony.

ART. 25. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom is charged with the relations of Belgium with foreign powers in the subject of the colony.

CHAPTER VI.

General provisions.

ART. 26. The decisions rendered in civil and commercial matters by the Belgian courts having force in Belgium have in the colony the same force and shall be executed in full right.

All authenticated legal documents having force in Belgium shall have full force and right in the colony.

The judgments rendered in civil and commercial matters by the courts. sitting in the colony having force in the colony shall have in Belgium full force if they conform to the following conditions:

1st. That the decision shall not contain anything contrary to public order or to the principles of Belgian public law;

2nd. That according to the colonial law it shall be in force and binding;

3rd. That in accordance with the same law the copy that is exhibited shall contain the conditions necessary to their authenticity;

4th. When the rights of the defendants have been respected.

The decisions of the courts shall be executed by the civil tribunal; the arbitral judgments and authenticated legal documents, by the president of the civil tribunal in the place where the execution must be put in force.

The authenticated legal instruments having force in the colony shall have force in Belgium when they conform to the following conditions: First, when the provisions which it is sought to put in force have nothing contrary to public order or to the principles of Belgian public law; second, when according to the colonial law, they contain the conditions necessary to their authenticity.

ART. 27. Anyone under charge of a breach of law committed in the colonies, and found in Belgium, may be taken and tried there by the Belgian tribunals conformably with the colonial penal code but according to the forms established by Belgian law.

The investigating tribunal acting in the matter may return the person under charge to the colonial jurisdiction, either upon his request or by virtue of a unanimous decision rendered at a public sitting upon the requisition of the public prosecutor, the person charged being present or having been duly cited.

Anyone under charge of a breach of law committed in Belgium, and

found in the territory of the colonies shall be delivered to the Belgian courts to be judged according to Belgian laws.

The person charged, if the Belgian authorities have not requested his return, may be represented before the Belgian courts by special attorney.

When the breach of the law consists of infractions committed partly upon Belgian territory and partly upon colonial territory it shall be considered as having been committed in Belgium.

When there are several accomplices of which some are found in Belgian territory and others in colonial territory the Belgian tribunals only are competent.

The tribunals competent to try the principals are equally competent to try the accomplices.

The decisions rendered in penal matters by Belgian courts or colonial courts shall have in Belgian territory or in colonial territory the authority of a judgment and shall have full force therein.

Nevertheless, anyone condemned by the Belgian courts to an imprisonment of not less than six months in prison may serve said sentence in Belgium if he so requests.

ART. 28. In all matters, the notification of judicial and extrajudicial acts concerning persons domiciled or resident in the colony is subject in Belgium to the general rules relative to the notification of acts concerning persons domiciled or resident abroad. Nevertheless the Minister of Colonies may intervene, if necessary, in representation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Reciprocally the notification of judicial and extrajudicial acts concerning persons domiciled or resident in Belgium is subject in the colony to the general rules relative to the notification of acts concerning persons domiciled or resident abroad.

The rogatory commissions emanating from competent Belgian and colonial authorities shall have full force in the territory of Belgium and in the colonial territory.

ART. 29. The members of the legislative chambers can not be during their term of office paid functionaries, salaried employees, or attorneys for the colonial administration.

From the date of promulgation of the proposed law no member of either legislative Chamber can be nominated, nor if he now occupies any of the said positions, at the expiration of the term of office, be renominated a delegate of the Government, an administrator or a commissioner

in stock companies which carry on in Belgian Congo enterprises with at lucrative object if these functions are in any way remunerative or if the State is a stockholder in the company.

This last prohibition applies likewise to members of the Colonial Council, to the Governor-General, to the magistrates, and to the functionaries in the service of the colonial government.

Candidates for the legislative bodies, who exercise functions incompatible with the aforesaid legislative prohibition, although elected, may not be permitted to take the oath of office until they shall have resigned. The members of the legislative bodies can not be nominated to functions and employments referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 until at least one year after the termination of their term of office. Nomination to the office of Governor-General or of Vice-Governor-General of the colony shall not be subjected to this delay.

ART. 30. The functionaries and Belgian army officers, authorized to accept employment in the colony, before as well as after annexation, preserve their rank and their right of advancement in the administration or the army which they may have temporarily abandoned.

Belgian minors can not enlist in the colonial army without the written consent of their father, or of their mother when she is a widow, or, where they are orphans, of their guardian. In the last case, the authorization ought to result from a family council.

During the period of their active service, the Belgian military conscripts can not be authorized to enlist in the colonial army; any authorization which may be given them in violation of the existing rule of law will be considered as null and void.

ART. 31. Independently of the flag and the great seal of Belgium, the colony of the Congo may make use of the flag and great seal of the Congo State.

ART. 32. The decrees, regulations, and other acts now in vigor will preserve their obligatory force, except when such provisions are contrary to the present law, in which case they are abrogated.

ART. 33. Each year, together with the proposed colonial budget, there shall be presented to the Chambers, in the name of the King, a report on the administration of the Belgian Congo.

This report will contain all the explanations necessary to enlighten the national legislative bodies in the political, economical, financial, and moral situation of the colony.

It shall render account of the disposition during the fiscal year of the

annuity provided for in article 4 of the additional act of the treaty of annexation of the Independent State of the Congo to Belgium.

ART. 34. After annexation, the permanent magistrates, the functionaries, and all other agents of the Independent State of the Congo will preserve their positions for the term and under the conditions provided in the contract of their engagements.

DECREE SUPPRESSING THE FOUNDATION OF THE CROWN.

March 5, 1908.

LEOPOLD II, King of the Belgians,

Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo,

To whom it may concern, greeting:

Referring to our decrees relative to the Foundation of the Crown, and particularly to those of March 9, 1896, December 23, 1901, December 21, 1906, and June 21, 1907, and especially to article 7 of decree of December 23, 1901, which is as follows:

If the present Foundation should cease to exist or if the clauses and conditions arranging for the utilization of the property with which it has been endowed shall not be respected, this property will revert in full right and be returned to the Founder or will be applied to the liquidation of the obligations owed by it to institutions, juridical persons or to public Congolese and other establishments, which the Founder may designate.

Upon the advice of our Secretary of State, we have decreed and decree:

ARTICLE 1.

From this date, the juridical person of the Foundation of the Crown having ceased to exist, in conformity with article 4 of the treaty of November 28, 1907, Belgium will assume the right of sovereignty over the territories of the Congo.

The property with which we have endowed it will revert to us.

ARTICLE 2.

On the date fixed in the preceding article, the property hereinafter enumerated will be, through the present decree and in consideration of the additional act of March 5, 1908, ceded by us to the State:

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