Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/70

 Emperor of the French, and His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, in their character of signing parties to the Convention of the 7th of May, 1832, recognize such union, and declare that Greece, within the limits determined by the arrangement concluded at Constantinople between the Courts of Great Britain, France, and Russia, and the Ottoman Porte on the 21st of July, 1832 ,—including the Ionian Islands,—shall form a monarchical, independent, and constitutional State, under the Sovereignty of His Majesty King George and under the guarantee of the three Courts.

. II. The Courts of Great Britain, France, and Russia, in their character of guaranteeing Powers of Greece, declare, with the assent of the Courts of Austria and Prussia, that the Islands of Corfu and Paxo, as well as their dependencies, shall, after their union to the Hellenic Kingdom, enjoy the advantages of perpetual neutrality.

His Majesty the King of the Hellenes engages, on his part, to maintain such neutrality.

. III. The union of the Ionian Islands to the Hellenic Kingdom shall not involve any change as to the advantages conceded to foreign commerce and navigation in virtue of Treaties and Conventions concluded by foreign Powers with Her Britannic Majesty, in her character of Protector of the Ionian Islands.

All the engagements which result from the said transactions as well as from the regulations actually in force in relation thereto, shall be maintained and strictly observed as hitherto.

In consequence, it is expressly understood that foreign vessels and commerce in Ionian ports, as well as the navigation between Ionian ports and the ports of Greece, shall continue to be subject to the same treatment, and placed under the same conditions, as before the union of the Ionian Islands to Greece, until the conclusion of new formal Conventions, or of arrangements destined to regulate between the parties