Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/280

 Commission has acted in conformity with their intentions, and wishing- to determine by a public Act, the rights and obligations which the new state of things established on the Lower Danube has created for the different parties interested, and particularly for all the flags navigating the river, have named for their Plenipotentiaries : that is to say : —

[Here follow the names and titles of the plenipotentiaries.]

Who, after having shown their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following provisions : —

I. Provisions relating to the Material Conditions of the Navigation.

I. All the works and establishments created in execution of Article XVI of the Treaty of Paris of 30th March, 1856, with all belonging to or depending from them, shall continue to be devoted exclusively to the use of the navigation of the Danube, and can never be turned aside from this object for any motive whatever ; to this end they are placed under the guarantee and protection of international law.

The European Commission of the Danube, or the authority which shall of right take its place, shall continue charged, to the exclusion of all interference whatever, to administer these works and establishments for the advantage of the navigation, to watch over their maintenance and preservation, and to give to them all the development that the requirements of the navigation may demand.

II. There shall be specially reserved to the said European Commission, or to the authority that shall succeed it, the power to design and cause to be carried out all the works that may be deemed necessary, in the event of its being wished to render permanent the improvements, until now of a temporary character, in the branch and at the mouth of the Sulina, and to prolong the piers at this mouth according as the state of the Bar Channel may require it.

III. There will remain reserved to the said European Commission to undertake the improvement of the mouth and branch of the St. George, resolved on by common agreement, and simply postponed for the present.