Representatives of the governments of Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Congo State, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Turkey, assembled at Brussels, in June, 1899, with due authorization, and there concluded an international convention respecting the liquor traffic in Africa. Subsequently the governments of Austria-Hungary, the United States of America, Liberia and Persia, gave their adhesion to the Convention, and ratifications were deposited at Brussels in June, 1900. The Convention is, in a measure, supplemental to what is known as "the General Act of Brussels," relative to the African slave trade, which was framed at a conference of the representatives of European, American, African, and Asiatic states, at Brussels. The treaty known as the General Act of Brussels was signed July 2, 1890, but did not come into force until April 2, 1894. The text of it may be found in (United States) House Doc. Number 276, 56th Congress, 3d Session. The Convention of 1899 provides: "Article I. From the coming into force of the present Convention, the import duty on spirituous liquors, as that duty is regulated by the General Act of Brussels, shall be raised throughout the zone where there does not exist the system of total prohibition provided by Article XCI, of the said General Act, to the rate of 70 fr. the hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade, for a period of six years. It may, exceptionally, be at the rate of 60 fr. only the hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade in the Colony of Togo and in that of Dahomey. The import duty shall be augmented proportionally for each degree above 50 degrees centigrade; It may be diminished proportionally for each degree below 50 degrees centigrade. At the end of the above-mentioned period of six years, the import duty shall be submitted to revision, taking as a basis the results produced by the preceding rate. The Powers retain the right of maintaining and increasing the duty beyond the minimum fixed by the present Article in the regions where they now possess that right. Article II. In accordance with Article XCIII of the General Act of Brussels, distilled drinks made in the regions mentioned in Article XCII of the said General Act, and intended for consumption, shall pay an excise duty. This excise duty, the collection of which the Powers undertake to insure as far as possible, shall not be lower than the minimum import duty fixed by Article I. of the present Convention. Article III. It is understood that the Powers who signed the General Act of Brussels, or who have acceded to it, and who are not represented at the present Conference, preserve the right of acceding to the present Convention." _Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication. (Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 13, 1900)._