318
Order in Council (France).
MAIL SHIPS.
with the desire to fix the special treatment to be accorded to British packets in the ports of France and of the French Colonies and Possessions, and to French packets in the ports of the United Kingdom and of the British Colonies and Possessions, and availing themselves of the right reserved to the Contracting Parties by the Convention of the Universal Postal Union, have resolved to conclude a Convention to that end:
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1. Between the Postal Administration of France and the Postal Administration of Great Britain there shall be a regular exchange of correspondence of all kinds, which shall be effected by means of two steam-packet services which shall continue to be maintained or subsidized, the one by the French Government and the other by the British Government on the line between Calais and Dover.
The French Postal Administration and the British Postal Administration shall regulate, by common consent and in accordance with the mutual interests of both countries, the days and hours of departure and arrival of the subsidized packets.
2. Independently of the correspondence which shall be exchanged between the Postal Administrations of the two countries by the means indicated in the preceding Article, those Administrations may reciprocally forward from one to the other correspondence of all kinds by the several means hereinafter mentioned, namely:-(1) by such packets as the French Government and the British Government may respectively think it right to maintain, to freight, or to subsidize, for the conveyance of correspondence; (2) by merchant-ships plying between French ports and British ports.
3. The commanders of British and French merchant-ships sailing from the ports of France or Algeria for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on the one part, and the commanders of British and French merchant-ships sailing from the ports of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for France or Algeria, on the other part, shall be bound to take charge of the mails which the post offices at the ports of departure may have to deliver to them.
4. The charges for the sea conveyance of correspondence exchanged between the French Postal Administration and the British Postal Administration by means of non-contract merchant-ships shall be paid to the commanders or owners of those vessels by the Postal Administration of the country of origin, namely:
(1) At the rate of 5 francs per kilog. of letters and postcards; (2) At the rate of 50 centimes per kilog. of other articles.
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