Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 61 Part 4.djvu/18

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3360 INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS OTHER THAN TREATIES [61 STAT. every kind of direct or indirect tax; it being understood, how- ever, that the members of such personnel who are domiciled in Belgium or who have their permanent residences in that country shall be subject to the professional tax and the national emergency tax on their salaries, as well as on the supplementary personal tax. It is understood that, if the agreement to prevent double-taxation which is being nego- tiated at the present time between the Belgian Government and the Government of the United States is adopted and ratified, the American personnel concerned with the cemeteries shall be exempt from the income-tax. Pending adoption of that agreement, it may be agreed to postpone provisionally the collection of the income-tax, if the proper American authorities make an express request to that effect, indicating the names and addresses of the persons concerned. VII. The provisions of the present Agreement shall apply with the same force and effect to the transportation of mortal remains by sea to Belgium from foreign countries, as well as to their burial, if the next of kin live in Belgium or in one of its territories or possessions and request that they be buried definitively in a permanent cemetery of the United States in Belgium. VIII. The Belgian Government pledges itself to submit to the Belgian Parlement, should the occasion arise, such proposed laws as may be found necessary for exemption from the various charges and fees which have not been the subject of a formal exemption in the present Agreement. IX. The rights, privileges and prerogatives reserved for the United States by virtue of the present Agreement shall be exercised before January 1, 1955, except when it is a question of the use of land acquired for the purpose of making perma- nent cemeteries and (or) for the purpose of erecting monuments thereon, including the appurtenances thereof and the buildings which will be erected there, in which cases the said rights, privileges and prerogatives shall be perpetual. I avail myself of this occasion, Mr. Ambassador, to renew to Your Excellency the assurances of my very high considera- tion. For the Minister of Foreign Affairs: The Secretary General ad interim, DE ROMRPE His Excellency Admiral ALAN GOODRICH KIRK, Ambassador of the United States of America, Brussels.