whose name and description correspond to those indicated in the address. 5. The payment of the indemnity by the dispatching office ought to take place as soon as possible, and at latest within a year of the date of the application. The responsible office is bound to refund to the dispatching office, without delay, the amount of the indemnity paid by the latter.

The office of origin is authorized to make payment to the sender on account of the office, whether intermediate or of destination, which, after application has been made in due course, has let a year pass without settling the matter. Moreover, in cases where an office whose responsibility is duly established has at the outset declined to pay the indemnity, such office must take upon itself, in addition to the indemnity, the subsidiary expenses resulting from the unwarranted delay in payment.

6. It is understood that the application for an indemnity is only entertained if made within a year of the posting of the registered article; after this term the applicant has no right to any indemnity.

7. If the loss has occurred in course of conveyance without its being possible to ascertain on the territory or in the service of what country the loss took place, the administrations concerned bear the loss in equal shares.

8. Administrations cease to be responsible for registered articles for which the owners have given a receipt and accepted delivery.

Article 9. Withdrawal of Articles, Correction of Address, Etc.

1. The sender of a letter or other article can have it withdrawn from the post or have its address altered, so long as such article has not been delivered to the addressee.

2. The request for such withdrawal is sent by mail or by telegraph at the expense of the sender, who must pay as follows:

1° For every request by mail, the amount payable for a registered single letter;

2° For every request by telegraph, the charge for a telegram according to the ordinary tariff.

3. The sender of a registered article marked with a trade charge can, under the conditions laid down for requests for alteration of address, demand the total or partial cancelling of the amount of the trade charge.

4. The stipulations of this article are not obligatory for countries of which the legislation does not permit the sender to dispose of an article in its course through the post.

Article 10. Fixing of Rates in Money other than the Franc.

Those countries of the union which have not the franc for their monetary unit fix their charges at the equivalents, in their respective currencies, of the rates determined by the various articles of the present convention. Such countries have the option of rounding fractions in conformity with the table inserted in the detailed regulations mentioned in Article 20 of the present convention.

The administrations which maintain post offices forming part of the union in non-union countries fix their rates in the local currency, in the same manner. When two or several administrations maintain such offices in the same non-union country, the local equivalents to be adopted by all such offices are fixed by mutual arrangement between the administrations concerned.

Article 11. Prepayment; Reply Coupons; Exemptions from Postage.

1. Prepayment of postage on every description of article can be effected only by means of postage stamps valid in the country of origin for the correspondence of private individuals. It is not, however, permitted to make use, in the international service, of postage stamps produced with an object special and peculiar to the country of issue, such as the so-called commemorative postage stamps of temporary validity.

Reply post cards bearing postage stamps of the country in which the cards were issued are considered as duly prepaid, as also are newspapers or packets of newspapers without postage stamps but with the superscription "Abonnements poste" (subscription by mail), which are sent in virtue of the special arrangement for newspaper subscriptions, provided for in Article 19 of the present convention.

2. Reply coupons can be exchanged between the countries of which the administrations have agreed to participate in such exchange. The minimum selling price of a reply coupon is 28 centimes, or the equivalent of this sum in the money of the country which sells it.

This coupon is exchangeable in all countries parties to the agreement for a postage stamp of 25 centimes or the equivalent of that sum in the money of the country where the exchange is requested. The detailed regulations contemplated in Article 20 of the convention determine the other conditions of this exchange, and in particular the intervention of the international bureau in manufacturing, supplying and accounting for the coupons.

3. Official correspondence relative to the postal service exchanged between postal administrations, between these administrations and the international bureau, and between post offices in union countries, is exempt from prepayment by means of ordinary postage stamps, and is free from liability to charge.

4. The same privilege is accorded to correspondence concerning prisoners of war, dispatched or received, either directly or as intermediary, by the special information offices established on behalf of such persons, in belligerent countries or in neutral countries which have received belligerents on their territories.

Correspondence intended for prisoners of war or dispatched by them is likewise exempt from postal charges, not only in the countries of origin and destination, but in intermediary countries,

Belligerents received and held in a neutral country are assimilated to prisoners of war, properly so called, in so far as the application of the above-mentioned stipulations is concerned.

5. Articles posted on the high seas in the letter box on board a vessel or placed in the hands of postal agents on board or the commanders of ships may be prepaid by means of the postage stamps, and according to the tariff of the country to which the said vessel belongs or by which it is maintained. If the mailing on board takes place during the stay at one of the two terminal points of the voyage or at any intermediate port of call, prepayment can only be effected by means of the postage stamps and according to the tariff of the country in the waters of which the vessel happens to be.

Article 12. Postage Kept by Collecting Country.

1. Each administration keeps the whole of the sums which it collects by virtue of the foregoing Articles 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11, exceptions being made in the case of the credit due for the money orders referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 7, and also in regard to reply coupons (Article 11). 2. Consequently there is no necessity under this head for any accounts between the several administrations of the union, subject always to the reservations made in paragraph 1 of the present article.

3. Letters and other postal articles cannot be subjected, either in the country of origin or in that of destination, to any postal tax or postal fee at the expense of the senders or addressees other than those contemplated in the articles above mentioned.

Article 13. Special-Delivery Articles.

1. At the request of the senders, all classes of articles are delivered at the addresses by a special messenger immediately on arrival, in those countries of the union which consent to undertake this service in their reciprocal relations.

2. Such articles, which are marked "express" are subject to a special charge for delivery; this charge is fixed at 30 centimes, and must be fully paid in advance by the sender, in addition to the ordinary postage. It belongs to the administration of the country of origin.

3. When an article is destined for a place where there is no post office authorized to deliver correspondence by express messenger, the postal administration of the country of destination can levy an additional charge up to the amount of the fee fixed for express delivery in its inland service, less the fixed charge paid by the sender, or its equivalent in the money of the country which levies this additional charge.

The additional charge provided for above is recoverable in case of redirection or nondelivery, and is retained by the administration which has raised it.

4. "Express" articles upon which the total amount of the charges payable in advance has not been prepaid are delivered by the ordinary means,

unless they have been treated as expressed by the office of origin.

Article 14. Reforwarding; Undelivered Articles.

1. No additional postage is charged for the reforwarding of postal articles within the union.

2. Undelivered articles do not, when returned, give rise to the restitution of the transit charges due to intermediate administrations for the previous conveyance of such correspondence.

3. Unpaid letters and post cards and insufficiently paid articles of every description, which are returned to the country of origin as redirected or as undeliverable, are liable, at the expense of the addressees or senders, to the same rates as similar articles addressed directly from the country of the first destination to the country of origin.

Article 15. Mails exchanged with Warships.

1. Closed mails may be exchanged between the post offices of any one of the contracting countries and the commanding officers of naval divisions or ships of war of the same country stationed abroad, or between the commanding officers of one of those naval divisions or ships of war and the commanding officer of another division or ship of the same country, through the medium of the sea or land services maintained by other countries.

2. Articles of every description inclosed in these mails must consist exclusively of such as are addressed to or sent by the officers and crews of the ships to or from which the mails are forwarded; the rates and conditions of dispatch applicable to them are determined, according to its internal regulations, by the postal administration of the country to which the ships belong.

3. In the absence of any arrangement to the contrary between the offices concerned, the post office which receives or dispatches the mails in question is accountable to the intermediate offices for transit charges calculated in accordance with the stipulations of article 4.

Article 16. Prohibitions.

1. Commercial papers, samples, and printed papers which do not fulfill the conditions laid down for articles of these categories in Article 5 of the present convention and in the regulations contemplated in Article 20 are not to be forwarded.

2. If occasion arise, these articles are sent back to the post office of origin and returned, if possible, to the sender, save where, in the case of articles prepaid at least partially, the administration of the country of destination is authorized by its laws or by its internal regulations to deliver them.

3. It is forbidden:

1° To send by post:

a. Samples and other articles which, from their nature, may expose the postal officials to danger or soil or damage the correspondence;

b. Explosive, inflammable, or dangerous substances; animals and insects, living or dead, except in the cases provided for in the regulations contemplated in Article 20 of the convention.

2° To insert in ordinary or registered correspondence, consigned to the post:

a. Coin;

b. Articles liable to customs duty;

c. Articles of gold and silver, precious stones, jewelry and other precious articles, but only where their insertion or transmission is forbidden by the legislation of the countries concerned;

d. Any articles whatsoever of which the importation or circulation is prohibited in the country of destination.

4. Packets falling under the prohibitions of the foregoing paragraph 3, which have been erroneously admitted to transmission, should be returned to the post office of origin, except in cases where the administration of the country of destination is authorized by its laws or by its internal regulations to dispose of them otherwise.

Explosive, inflammable, or dangerous substances, however, are not returned to the country of origin; they are destroyed on the spot under the direction of the administration which has detected their presence.

5. The right is, moreover, reserved to the government of every country of the union to refuse to convey over its territory, or to deliver, articles passing at reduced rates in regard to which the laws, ordinances, or decrees which regulate the conditions of their publication or circulation in that country have not been complied with, or correspondence of any kind bearing ostensibly inscriptions, designs, etc., forbidden by the legal enactments or regulations in force in the same country. Article 17. Regulations with Countries Outside the Union.

1. Offices of the Union which have relations with countries situate outside the Union are to lend their assistance to all the other offices of the Union:

1° For the transmission, by their services, either in open mail or in closed mails, if this method of transmission is admitted by mutual agreement between the offices of origin and destination of the mails, of articles addressed to or originating in countries outside the union;

2° For the exchange of articles either in open mail or in closed mails across the territories or by means of services maintained by the said countries outside the union;

3° That the articles conveyed may be subject outside the union, as within the union, to the transit rates determined by Article 4.

2. The charges for the total sea transit, within and without the union, may not exceed 15 francs per kilogram of letters and post cards and I franc per kilogram of other articles. If occasion arise, these charges are divided, in the ratio of distances, between the offices taking part in the sea conveyance.