ARTICLE 63.

Austria undertakes to assure full and complete protection of life and liberty to all inhabitants of Austria without distinction of birth, nationality, language, race or religion.

All inhabitants of Austria shall be entitled to the free exercise, whether public or private, of any creed, religion, or belief, whose practices are not inconsistent with public order or public morals.

ARTICLE 64.

Austria admits and declares to be Austrian nationals ipso facto and without the requirement of any formality all persons possessing at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty rights of citizenship (pertinenza) within Austrian territory who are not nationals of any other State.

ARTICLE 65.

All persons born in Austrian territory who are not born nationals of another State shall ipso facto become Austrian nationals.

ARTICLE 66.

All Austrian nationals shall be equal before the law and shall enjoy the same civil and political rights without distinction as to race, language, or religion.

Differences of religion, creed, or confession shall not prejudice any Austrian national in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, as for instance admission to public employments, functions and honors, or the exercise of professions and industries.

No restriction shall be imposed on the free use by any Austrian national of any language in private intercourse, in commerce, in religion, in the press or in publications of any kind, or at public meetings.

Notwithstanding any establishment by the Austrian Government of an official language, adequate facilities shall be given to Austrian nationals of non-German speech for the use of their language, either orally or in writing, before the courts.

ARTICLE 67.

Austrian nationals who belong to racial, religious or linguistic minorities shall enjoy the same treatment and security in law and in fact as the other Austrian nationals. In particular they shall have an equal right to establish, manage and control at their own expense charitable, religious and social institutions, schools and other educational establishments, with the right to use their own language and to exercise their religion freely therein.

ARTICLE 68.

Austria will provide in the public educational system in towns and districts in which a considerable proportion of Austrian nationals of other than German speech are residents adequate facilities for ensuring that in the primary schools the instruction shall be given to the children of such Austrian nationals through the medium of their own language. This provision shall not prevent the Austrian Government from making the teaching of the German language obligatory in the said schools.

In towns and districts where there is a considerable proportion of Austrian nationals belonging to racial, religious or linguistic minorities, these minorities shall be assured an equitable share in the enjoyment and application of the sums which may be provided out of public funds under the State, municipal or other budgets for educational, religious or charitable purposes.

ARTICLE 69.

Austria agrees that the stipulations in the foregoing Articles of this Section, so far as they affect persons belonging to racial, religious or linguistic minorities, constitute obligations of international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations. They shall not be modified without the assent of a majority of the Council of the League of Nations. The Allied and Associated Powers represented on the Council severally agree not to withhold their assent from any modification in these Articles which is in due form assented to by a majority of the Council of the League of Nations.

Austria agrees that any Member of the Council of the League of

Nations shall have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction, or any danger of infraction, of any of these obligations, and that the Council may thereupon take such action and give such direction as it may deem proper and effective in the circumstances.

Austria further agrees that any difference of opinion as to questions of law or fact arising out of these Articles between the Austrian Government and any one of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers or any other Power, a Member of the Council of the League of Nations, shall be held to be a dispute of an international character under Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Austrian Government hereby consents that any such dispute shall, if the other party thereto demands, be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The decision of the Permanent Court shall be final and shall have the same force and effect as an award under Article 13 of the Covenant.

SECTION VI.-Clauses relating to nationality.

ARTICLE 70.

Every person possessing rights of citizenship (pertinenza) in territory which formed part of the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy shall obtain ipso facto to the exclusion of Austrian nationality the nationality of the State exercising sovereignty over such territory.

ARTICLE 71.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 70, Italian nationality shall not, in the case of territory transferred to Italy, be acquired ipso facto:

(1) by persons possessing rights of citizenship in such territory who were not born there;

(2) by persons who acquired their rights of citizenship in such territory after May 24, 1915, or who acquired them only by reason. of their official position.

ARTICLE 72.

The persons referred to in Article 71, as well as those who (a) formerly possessed rights of citizenship in the territories transferred

to Italy, or whose father, or mother if the father is unknown, possessed rights of citizenship in such territories, or (b) have served in the Italian Army during the present war, and their descendants, may claim Italian nationality subject to the conditions prescribed in Article 78 for the right of option.

ARTICLE 73.

The claim to Italian nationality by the persons referred to in Article 72 may in individual cases be refused by the competent Italian authority.

ARTICLE 74.

Where the claim to Italian nationality under Article 72 is not made, or is refused, the persons concerned will obtain ipso facto the nationality of the State exercising sovereignty over the territory in which they possessed rights of citizenship before acquiring such rights in the territory transferred to Italy.

ARTICLE 75.

Juridical persons established in the territories transferred to Italy shall be considered Italian if they are recognized as such either by the Italian administrative authorities or by an Italian judicial decision.

ARTICLE 76.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 70, persons who acquired rights of citizenship after January 1, 1910, in territory transferred under the present Treaty to the Serb-Croat-Slovene State, or to the Czecho-Slovak State, will not acquire Serb-Croat-Slovene or CzechoSlovak nationality without a permit from the Serb-Croat-Slovene State or the Czecho-Slovak State respectively.

ARTICLE 77.

If the permit referred to in Article 76 is not applied for, or is refused, the persons concerned will obtain ipso facto the nationality of the State exercising sovereignty over the territory in which they previously possessed rights of citizenship.

ARTICLE 78.

Persons over 18 years of age losing their Austrian nationality and obtaining ipso facto a new nationality under Article 70 shall be entitled within a period of one year from the coming into force of the present Treaty to opt for the nationality of the State in which they possessed rights of citizenship before acquiring such rights in the territory transferred.

Option by a husband will cover his wife and option by parents will cover their children under 18 years of age.

Persons who have exercised the above right to opt must within the succeeding twelve months transfer their place of residence to the State for which they have opted.

They will be entitled to retain their immovable property in the territory of the other State where they had their place of residence before exercising their right to opt.

They may carry with them their movable property of every description. No export or import duties may be imposed upon them in connection with the removal of such property.

ARTICLE 79.

Persons entitled to vote in plebiscites provided for in the present Treaty shall within a period of six months after the definitive attribution of the area in which the plebiscite has taken place be entitled to opt for the nationality of the State to which the area is not assigned. The provisions of Article 78 relating to the right of option shall apply equally to the exercise of the right under this Article.

ARTICLE 80.

Persons possessing rights of citizenship in territory forming part of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and differing in race and language from the majority of the population of such territory, shall within six months of the coming into force of the present Treaty severally be entitled to opt for Austria, Italy, Poland, Roumania, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State, or the Czecho-Slovak State, if the majority of the population of the State selected is of the same race and language as the person exercising the right to opt. The provisions of Article 78 as to the exercise of the right of option shall apply to the right of option given by this Article.