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Sec. 1102. The Convention of Paris.-Universal Postal Union concluded between Germany, the Argentine Republic, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark and the Danish Colonies, Egypt, Spain and the Spanish Colonies, the United States of North America, France and the French Colonies, Great Britain and certain British Colonies, British India, Canada, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Mexico, Montenegro, Norway, the Netherlands and the Netherland Colonies, Peru, Persia, Portugal and the Portuguese Colonies, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Salvador, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.

CONVENTION.

The undersigned, plenipotentiaries of the governments of the countries above enumerated, being assembled in congress at Paris, by virtue of Article 18 of the Treaty constituting the General Postal Union, concluded at Berne on the 9th of October, 1874, have, by mutual agreement, and subject to ratification, revised the said Treaty, conformably to the following stipulations:

ARTICLE 1.

The countries between which the present Convention is concluded, as well as those which may join it hereafter, form, under the title of Universal Postal Union, a single postal territory for the reciprocal exchange of correspondence between their post-offices.

ARTICLE 2.

The stipulations of this Convention extend to letters, post-cards, printed matter of all kinds, commercial documents and samples of merchandise, originating in one of the countries of the Union and intended for another of those countries. They also apply, so far as regards conveyance within the Union, to the exchange by mail of the articles above mentioned between the countries of the Union and countries foreign to the Union, whenever that exchange makes use of the services of two of the contracting parties at least.

ARTICLE 3.

The Postal Administrations of neighboring countries, or countries able to correspond directly with each other without using the intermediary of the services of a third Administration, determine, by mutual agreement, the conditions of the conveyance of their reciprocal mails across the frontier, or from one frontier to the other.

Unless there be a contrary arrangement, the direct sea conveyance performed between two countries by means of packets or vessels depending upon one of them, shall be considered as a third service; and such conveyance, as well as any performed between two offices of the same country, by the intermediary of maritime or territorial services maintained by another country, is regulated by the stipulations of the following article.

ARTICLE 4.

The right of transit is guaranteed throughout the entire territory of the Union.

Consequently, the several Postal Administrations of the Union may send reciprocally through the intermediary of one or of several of them, as well closed mails as correspondence in open mails, according to the requirements of trade and the convenience of the postal service.

The correspondence exchanged, whether in open or in closed mails, between two administrations of the Union, by means of the services of one or of several other administrations of the Union, is subject to the following transit charges, to be paid to each of the countries traversed, or whose services participate in the conveyance, viz:

1st. For territorial conveyance, 2 francs per kilogramme of letters or post-cards, and 25 centimes per kilogramme of other articles;

2d. For sea conveyance, 15 francs per kilogramme of letters or postcards, and 1 franc per kilogramme of other articles;

It is, however, understood

1st. That wherever the transit is already gratuitous at present, or subject to more advantageous conditions, such condition is maintained, except in the case provided for in paragraph 3, following;

2d. That wherever the rate of sea-transit has hitherto been fixed at 6 francs 50 centimes per kilogramme of letters or post-cards, such rate is reduced to 5 francs;

3d. That every sea-conveyance not exceeding 300 nautical miles is gratuitous if the administration concerned is already entitled, on account of mails or correspondence benefiting by this conveyance, to the remuneration applicable to the territorial transit; in the contrary case pay. ment is made at the rate of 2 francs per kilogramme of letters or postcards, and 25 centimes per kilogramme of other articles;

4th. That in the case of sea-conveyance effected by two or more administrations, the expenses of the entire transportation cannot exceed 15 francs per kilogramme of letters or post-cards, and 1 franc per kilogramme of other articles. These expenses are in such case shared between the administrations pro rata for the distances traversed, without prejudice to other arrangements between the parties interested;

5th. That the rates specified in the present article do not apply either to conveyance by means of services depending upon administrations foreign to the Union, or to conveyance within the Union by means of extraordinary services specially established or maintained by one administration in the interest or at the request of one or several other administrations. The conditions of these two categories of conveyance are regulated by mutual agreement between the administrations interested. The expenses of transit are borne by the administration of the country of origin.

The general settlement of these expenses takes place on the basis of statements prepared every two years, during a month to be determined on in the Regulation of Execution referred to in Article 14 hereafter.

The correspondence of the postal administrations with each other, articles reforwarded or missent, undeliverable articles, acknowledgments of delivery, post-office money-orders or advices of the issue of orders, and all documents relative to the postal service, are exempt from all transit charges, whether territorial or maritime.

ARTICLE 5.

The rates of postage for the conveyance of postal articles throughout the entire extent of the Union, including their delivery at the residence of the addressees in the countries of the Union where a delivery service is or shall be organized, are fixed as follows:

1st. For letters, 25 centimes in case of prepayment, and double that amount in the contrary case, for each letter and for every weight of 15 grammes or fraction of 15 grammes;

2d. For post-cards, 10 centimes per card;

3d. For printed matter of every kind, commercial papers, and samples of merchandise, 5 centimes for each article or packet bearing a particu lar address; and for every weight of 50 grammes or fraction of 50 grammes, provided that such article or package does not contain any letter or manuscript note having the character of an actual and personal correspondence, and that it be made up in such a manner as to admit of its being easily examined.

The charge on commercial papers cannot be less than 25 centimes per packet, and the charge on samples cannot be less than 10 centimes per packet.

In addition to the rates and minima fixed by the preceding paragraphs, there may be levied :

1st. For every article subjected to the sea transit rates of 15 francs per kilogramme of letters or post-cards and 1 franc per kilogramme of other articles, an additional charge, which may not exceed 25 centimes per single rate for letters, 5 centimes per post-card, and 5 centimes per 50 grammes or fraction of 50 grammes for other articles. As a temporary arrangement, there may be levied an additional charge up to 10 centimes per single rate for the letters subjected to the transit rate of 5 francs per kilogramme.

2d. For every article conveyed by services maintained by administrations foreign to the Union, or conveyed by extraordinary services in the Union giving rise to special expenses, an additional charge in proportion to these expenses.

In case of insufficient prepayment, articles of correspondence of all kinds are liable to a charge equal to double the amount of the deficiency, to be paid by the addressees.

Circulation shall not be given

1st. To articles other than letters which are not prepaid at least partly, or which do not fulfill the conditions required above in order to enjoy the reduced rate;

2d. To articles of a nature likely to soil or injure the correspondence; 3d. To packets of samples of merchandise which have a salable value, or which exceed 250 grammes in weight, or measure more than 20 centimeters in length, 10 in breadth, and 5 in depth.

4th. Lastly, to packets of commercial papers and printed matter of all kinds, the weight of which exceeds 2 kilogrammes.

ARTICLE 6.

The articles specified in Article 5 may be registered.

Every registered article is liable, at the charge of the sender

1st. To the ordinary prepaid rate of postage upon the article, according to its nature;

2d. To a fixed registration fee of 25 centimes at the maximum in the European states, and of 50 centimes at the maximum in the other countries, including the issue to the sender of a bulletin of posting.

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