4

F.—s.

This payment may be increased to 4 francs for letters and to 50 centimes for the articles specified in Article IV. when a transit is provided of more than 750 kilometres in length over the territory of one Office. It is understood, however, that in any case in which the transit is already actually gratuitous or subject to lower rates, those conditions shall bo maintained. Whenever a transit shall take place by sea over a distance exceeding 300 nautical miles within the district of the Union, the Office by or at the expense of which this sea service is performed shall have the right to a payment of the expenses attending this transport. The members of the Union engage to reduce those expenses as much as possible. The payment which the Office providing the sea conveyance may claim on this account from the despatching Office shall not exceed 6 francs 50 centimes per kilogramme for letters, and fifty centimes per kilogramme for the articles specified in Article IV. (net weight). In no case shall these expenses be higher than those now paid. Consequently, no payment shall be made upon the sea routes on which nothing is paid at the present time. In order to ascertain the weight of the correspondence forwarded in transit, whether in closed mails or in open mails, there shall be taken, at periods which shall be determined upon by common consent, an account of such correspondence during two weeks. Until revised, the result of that account shall serve as the basis of the accounts of the Post Offices between themselves. Each Office may demand a revision, — 1. In case of any important modification in the direction of the correspondence : 2. At the expiration of a year after the date of the last account. The provisions of the present Article are not applicable to the Indian mail, nor to the mails conveyed across the territory of the United States of America by the railways between New York and San Francisco. Those services shall continue to form the object of special arrangements between the Post Offices concerned. Article XI. The relations of the countries of the Union with countries foreign to the Union shall be regulated by the separate conventions which now exist or which may be concluded between them. The rates of postage chargeable for the conveyance beyond the limits of the Union shall be determined by those conventions ; they shall be added, in such case, to the Union rate. In conformity with the stipulations of Article IX., the Union rate shall be appropriated in the following manner: — 1. The despatching office of the Union shall keep the whole of the Union rate for the prepaid correspondence addressed to foreign countries. 2. The receiving office of the Union shall keep the whole of the Union rate for the unpaid correspondence originating in foreign countries. 3. The Office of the Union wdiich exchanges closed mails with foreign countries shall keep the whole of the Union rate for the paid correspondence originating in foreign countries and for the unpaid correspondence addressed to foreign countries. In the cases mentioned under the numbers 1, 2, and 3, the Office which exchanges the mails is not entitled to any payment for transit. In all the other cases the transit rates shall be paid according to the stipulations of Article X. Article XII. The exchange of letters with value declared and of Post Office money orders shall form the subject of ulterior arrangements between the various countries or groups of countries composing the Union. Article XIII. The Post Offices of the various countries composing the Union are competent to draw up, by common consent, in the form of detailed regulations, all the measures of order and detail necessary with a view to the execution of the present Treaty. It is understood that the stipulations of these detailed regulations may always be modified by the common consent of the Offices of the Union. The several Offices may make amongst themselves the necessary arrangements on the subject of questions which do not concern the Union generally; such as the regulations of exchange at the frontier, the determination of radii in adjacent countries within which a lower rate of postage may be taken, the conditions of the exchange of Post Office money orders, and of letters with declared value, &c, &c. Article XIV. The stipulations of the present Treaty do not involve any alteration in the inland postal legislation of any country, nor any restriction on the right of the contracting parties to maintain and to conclude treaties, as well as to maintain and establish more restricted Unions with a view to a progressive improvement of postal relations. Article XV. There shall be organized, under the name of tho International Office of the General Postal Union, a central office, which shall be conducted under the surveillance of a Postal Administration to be chosen by the Congress, and the expenses of which shall be borne by all the Offices of the contracting States. This office shall be charged with the duty of collecting, publishing, and distributing information of every kind which concerns the International Postal Service ; of giving, at the request of the parties concerned, an opinion upon questions in dispute; of making known proposals for modifying the detailed regulations; of notifying alterations adopted; of facilitating operations relating to international accounts, especially in the cases referred to in Article X. foregoing; and in general of considering and working out all questions in the interest of the Postal Union.