Article 15.—The Government of each country will, for the term of ten years, accord to the merchant vessels of the other country the same treatment in respect of all port charges, including entrance and clearance dues, light dues, and tonnage duties, as it accords to its own merchant vessels, not engaged in the coastwise trade. This article may at any time be terminated on six monthsʼ notice given by either Government to the other.
Article 16.—It is understood that any obligations assumed in this treaty by the United States with respect to Cuba are limited to the time of its occupancy thereof; but it will, upon the termination of such occupancy, advise any Government established in the Island to assume the same obligations.
Article 17.—The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by Her Majesty the Queen-Regent of Spain; and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington within six months from the date hereof, or earlier if possible.
In faith whereof, we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty and have hereunto affixed our seals.
Done in duplicate at Paris, the 10th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1898.
William R. Day.
Cushman K. Davis.
William P. Frye.
Geo. Gray.
Whitelaw Reid.
Eugenio Montero Rios.
B. de Abarzuza.
J. de Garnica.
W. R. de Villa-Urrutia.
Rafael Cerero.
Two years afterwards a supplementary treaty was made between the United States and Spain, whereby the Islands of Cagayán de Joló, Sibutu, and other islets not comprised in the demarcation set forth in the Treaty of Paris, were ceded to the United States for the sum of $100,000 gold. These small islands had, apparently, been overlooked when the Treaty of Paris was concluded.
[1] On February 15, 1898, the U.S. man-of-war Maine, whilst lying in the harbour of Havana, was, accidentally or intentionally, blown up, causing the death of 266 of her crew. Public opinion in America attributed the disaster to Spanish malice. The Spaniards indignantly repudiated this charge and invited an official inquest. Again, at the Conference of December 6, 1898, the Spanish Commissioners of the Peace Commission at Paris proposed an additional article to the treaty “to appoint an International Commission to be entrusted with investigating the causes of, and responsibility for, the Maine catastrophe,” but the proposal was rejected by the American Commissioners.
[2] Mirs Bay has since become British, being included in the extended Kowloon Concession on the mainland of China opposite Hong-Kong.