Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 16.djvu/1010

976

Agreed upon between the General Post-Office of the United States of America and the General Post-Office of Prussia, providing for the Registration of valuable Letters to be conveyed in the closed Mails between the United States and Prussia.

Article I. Letters, alleged to be valuable, posted at any post-office in the United States or its Territories, and addressed to Prussia, or any part of the German Austrian Postal Union, or posted in Prussia or the German Austrian Postal Union, and addressed to the United States, and deliverable at the respective exchange offices of New York, Boston, and Aachen, (Aix-la-Chapelle,) to be thence conveyed by means of the American and English and the English and Belgian mail lines, shall be registered at the office of mailing, on the application of the person posting the same:

Provided, That the full postage chargeable thereon to destination, together with a registration fee of five cents on each letter, be prepaid at such mailing office:

And provided, also, That such registration shall not be compulsory and shall not render the respective Post-Office Departments of this United States or Prussia, or their revenues,liable for the loss of such letters or packets, or the contents thereof.

Article II. All such letters or packets mailed in the interior of the of United States or Prussia, and the German-Austrian Postal Union, respectively, shall be received, registered, and receipted for, as directed in the general regulations issued in each country in regard to the registration of valuable letters, and shall be sent to the exchange offices of New York and Boston, or Asachen, respectively, for the purpose of being forwarded thence by the first outgoing mail.

Article III. The respective exchange offices of New York Boston and Aachen shall make a separate letter bill for each registered letter, or parcel of registered letters, originally mailed at said exchange offices, or sent to them to be forwarded, as prescribed by the regulations referred to in Article II., and shall enter therein the name of the person addressed the post-office to which it is to be mailed for delivery, and the rate of postage for each letter. The postmaster of said exchange office will then mail each such letter, or parcel of letters, in a separate package from the unregistered letters, and seal each package after tying it in the usual manner. The letter bills of such registered letters shall not be enclosed in the packages containing them; but shall be enclosed in a separate wrapper or envelope, sealeld, and addressed to the postmaster of the corresponding exchange of Achhen, Boston, or New York.

Article IV. On receipt of registered letters for delivery or distribution at either of the respective exchange offices of Aachen, Boston or New York, the postmaster of such receiving office will compare the letters with the bill, and endorse it "correct," if it is found so, or will note the error, if there be one, in the manner prescribed with regard to registered letters received from an inland post-office. He will then fill up the corresponding return bill, noting upon it whether correct or otherwise, and will see that it is returned by the first mail thereafter to the office of mailing, (New York, Boston, or Aachen, as the case may be.)