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XX. Statistics of Transit in Closed Mails.-1. The correspondence forwarded in closed mails across the territory of one or more other Offices shall form the object of a statement similar to specimen H. The despatching office of exchange shall enter in the letter bill for the receiving office of exchange the net weight of the letters, and of the printed papers, &c., without distinction of the origin of the correspondence. These entries shall be verified by the receiving office, which shall prepare, at the end of the period for taking the statistics, the statement above mentioned, in as many copies as there are Offices interested, including the Office of the place of final despatch.

2. These statements shall be submitted to the verification of the despatching office, and, after having been accepted by it, a copy of the same shall be sent to each of the intermediate Offices.

XXI. Transit Accounts.-The table G. and the statement H. shall be incorporated in a special account, by which shall be determined the annual amount of transit payable to each Office, in multiplying by 26 the combined totals of the two periods. The duty of preparing this account shall fall upon the Office having to receive payment, subject to any other arrangement to be adopted by common consent.

XXII. Transit of Post Cards.-Post cards shall be assimilated to letters in so far as concerns the payment of the transit rates. Those articles must consequently be included in the weight of the letters.

XXIII. Exemption from Transit Rates.-The following articles are exempt from payment of the costs of territorial transit and sea conveyance:Redirected and missent correspondence, undelivered correspondence, post office money orders, documents of accounts, and other documents relating to the postal service.

XXIV. Weight of Newspapers and Printed Papers.—As an exceptional measure, it is agreed that the States which, in consequence of their internal regulations, are unable to adopt the decimal metrical system of weight, shall have the right to substitute for it the ounce avoirdupois (28.3465 grammes), by assimilating a half-ounce to 15 grammes, and two ounces to 50 grammes, and to raise, if needful, the limit of the single rate of postage of newspapers to four ounces, but under the express con dition that, in the latter case, the postage on newspapers be not less than 10 centimes, and that an entire rate of postage be charged for each copy of the newspaper, even though several newspapers be included in the same packet.

XXV. Money; Jewelry.-There shall not be admitted for conveyance by the post, any letter or other packet which may contain either gold or silver money, jewels or precious articles, or any other articles whatever liable to Customs duties.

XXVI. Post-cards and Letters not admitted to conveyance.-Post cards

which are not fully prepaid shall not be forwarded. Each Office shall have, moreover, the right not to forward or not to admit in its service post-cards bearing any description of writing which may be forbidden by the statutory or administrative enactments in force in the country. The same shall be the case for letters and other articles which may bear externally any writing of the character referred to.

XXVII. International Office.-1. The Administration of the Posts of the Swiss Confederation is selected to organize the International Office established by Art. 15 of the Treaty. That Office shall commence its functions immediately after the exchange of the ratifications of the Treaty.

2. The ordinary expense of the International Office must not exceed the sum of 75,000 francs annually, exclusive of the special expenses to which the periodical meetings of the Postal Congress may give rise. That sum may be increased ultimately, with the consent of all the contracting Offices.

3. The Administration named in par. 1, above, shall superintend the expenses of the International Office, shall make the necessary advances, and shall prepare the annual account, which shall be communicated to all the other Offices.

4. For the division of the expenses, the contracting countries and those which may be hereafter admitted to join the Postal Union shall be divided into six classes, each contributing in the proportion of a certain number of units, viz.:

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5. These co-efficients shall be multiplied by the number of countries of each class, and the total of the products thus obtained shall furnish the number of units by which the whole expense shall be divided. The quotient will give the amount of the unit of expense.

6. The contracting countries are classified as follows, in view of the division of the expenses:—

1st class: Germany, Austro-Hungary, United States of America, France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Turkey; Spain;

2nd

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Belgium, Egypt, Netherlands, Roumania, Sweden;·
Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland;
Greece, Servia;

Luxemburg;

7. The International Office shall serve as the medium for the regular and general notifications which concern international relations. It shall equally receive from each Office published documents relative to its interior service.

8. Each office shall furnish the International Office, in the first half

of each year, with a complete series of statistical details relating to the previous year, in the form of tables prepared according to directions from the International Office, which shall distribute with that view forms properly prepared. It shall incorporate those details in a general statistical report, which shall be distributed to all the Offices.

9. The International Office shall publish, by the aid of the documents which are put at its disposal, a special journal in the German, English. and French languages.

10. The numbers of this journal, as well as all the documents published by the International Office, shall be distributed to the Offices of the Union in the proportion of the number of contributing units mentioned in par. 4. Any additional copies and documents which may be applied for shall be paid for separately at prime cost. Applications of this nature should be made in due time.

11. The International Office shall hold itself always at the disposal of the members of the Union for the purpose of furnishing them with any special information they may require upon questions relating to the International Postal Service.

12. When it shall have submitted to the solution of the several Offices a question which requires the assent of all the members of the Union, those which shall not have sent in their reply within a period of four months shall be considered as giving their consent.

13. The Office of the country in which the next Postal Congress is to be held, shall prepare, with the assistance of the International Office, the business to be submitted to the Congress.

14. The director of the International Office shall be present at the sittings of the Congress and shall take part in the discussions, but without the power of voting.

15. There shall be issued, under his superintendence, an annual report, which shall be communicated to all the members of the Union.

16. The official language of the International Office shall be the French language.

XXVIII. Language.—1. The letter bills, accounts, and other forms used by the Post Offices of the Union shall, as a general rule, be drawn up in the French language, unless the offices interested arrange otherwise by direct agreement.

2. As regards official correspondence, the present state of things shall be maintained, unless any other arrangement should subsequently be agreed upon by common consent between the Offices interested.

XXIX. District of the Union.-The following shall be considered as belonging to the General Postal Union:

1. Iceland and the Faroe Islands, as forming part of Denmark. 2. The Balearic Isles, the Canary Islands, the Spanish possessions on the Northern Coast of Africa, and the Postal establishments of Spain upon the Western Coast of Morocco, as forming part of Spain.

3. Algeria, as forming part of France.

4. The Island of Malta, as subordinate to the Post Office of Great Britain.

5. Madeira and the Azores, as forming part of Portugal.

6. The Grand Duchy of Finland, as forming an integral part of the Empire of Russia.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

POSTAL MONEY ORDERS.

ARTICLE 469. International postal money orders.

470. Money order offices.

471. Language.

472. Charges.

473. Gold basis.

474. Indorsement.

475. Unclaimed money.

476. Settlement of accounts.

International postal money orders.

469. The post department of each nation shall issue money orders for the transmission between persons in different nations, of sums specified, not exceeding one hundred dollars.'

Fifty dollars is the limit set by the conventions for exchange of postal money orders between France and

Prussia, July 3, 1865, Art. I., 9 De Clercq, 329.

Switzerland, Mar. 22, 1865,

Belgium, Mar. 1, 1865,

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9 Id., 205.

9 Id., 185.

9 Id., 10.

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Italy,

Italy,

Nov. 8, 1867, "XVII., 16 Id., (Tr.,) 229.
July 8, 1863, "XXII., 16 Id., (Tr.,) 225.

1 The French treaties fix the limit at two hundred francs.

Money order offices.

470. Postal money orders shall be issued at the office of the post department in the cities of London, Paris, New York, Berlin, St. Petersburgh, Vienna, and the other capital cities of the nations parties to this Code;

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