Page:Lltreaties-ustbv001.pdf/65

Rh *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.

The sender of a registered article may obtain an acknowledgment of delivery of such article by paying in advance a fixed fee of 25 centimes at the maximum.

In case of the loss of a registered article, and except in case of force majeure, there is to be paid an indemnity of 50 francs to the sender, or, at his request, to the addressee, by the Administration upon whose territory or in whose maritime service the loss has occurred; that is to say, where the trace of the article has ceased.

As a temporary measure, the Administrations of the countries beyond Europe, whose legislation is at present opposed to the principle of responsibility, are permitted to postpone the application of the preceding clause until the time when they shall have obtained from the legislative power authority to subscribe to it. Up to that time, the other Administrations of the Union are not bound to pay an indemnity for the loss, in their respective services, of registered articles addressed to or orginating in the said countries.

If it is impossible to discover the service in which the loss has occurred, the indemnity is borne in equal proportions between the two corresponding offices.

Payment of this indemnity is made with the least possible delay, and, at the latest, within a year dating from the day of application.

Every claim for an indemnity is excluded if it has not been made within one year from the date on which the registered article was posted.

Those countries of the Union which have not the franc for their monetary unit fix their postages at the equivalent in their respective currencies of the rates determined by Articles 5 and 6 preceding. Such countries have the option of rounding off the fractions in conformity with the table inserted in the Regulation of Execution mentioned in Article 14 of the present Convention.

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.

Official correspondence relative to the postal service, and exchanged between the Postal Administrations, is alone exempt from this obligation and admitted free.

Each Administration keeps the whole of the sums which it has collected in execution of the foregoing Articles 5, 6, 7, and 8. Consequently, there is