tions upon which shall be transmitted, by means of the British mail-packets, and by way of the Isthmus of Suez, the correspondence forwarded from France and Algeria, and from the countries the correspondence of which is transmitted through France, for the British possessions, and vice versa.
It is understood that the arrangements which may be made in virtue of the present Article, as well as those fixed by the preceding Articles XV, XVI, XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXV, and XXVIII, may be modified by the two Offices whenever those two Offices mutually see the necessity for such modification.
ARTICLE XXXII.
The Government of Her Britannic Majesty promises to do all in its power to enable the French Post Office to procure for the French public the option of receiving and sending, unpaid, or paid to destination, letters coming from the East Indies, or addressed to the East Indies; taking, as the basis of such arrangements, the combined rates of the British and East Indian offices applicable to the correspondence of the inhabitants of Great Britain.
ARTICLE XXXIII.
Ordinary or registered letters, newspapers, gazettes, periodical works, and printed papers of every kind misdirected or mis-sent, shall be reciprocally returned without delay, through the respective Offices of exchange, for the same weight and amount of postage at which they were charged by the dispatching Office to the other Office.
The articles of a like nature addressed to persons who have changed their residence shall be mutually forwarded or returned, charged with the rate that would have been paid by the receivers.
ARTICLE XXXIV.
Ordinary or registered letters, newspapers, gazettes, periodical works, and printed papers of every kind, exchanged in ordinary mails between the two Offices of Great Britain and France, which cannot be delivered, from whatever cause, shall be mutually returned at the expiration of every month, and oftener if possible. Such of these articles as shall have been charged in the accounts shall be returned for the amount of postage which was originally charged by the sending Office. Those which were sent paid to destination or to the frontier of the corresponding Office, shall be returned without postage or charge.
With regard to unpaid dead letters which have been conveyed in closed mails by one of the two Offices on account of the other, they shall be admitted for the same weight and amount of postage which was charged in the transit accounts of the respective Offices, on a simple declaration or on nominal lists vouching for the amount of postage demanded, when the letters themselves cannot be produced by the Office which has to claim the amount of their postage from the corresponding Office.
ARTICLE XXXV.
In order, reciprocally, to secure the postage on the whole correspondence exchanged between the two countries, the British and French Governments engage to prevent, by all the means in their power, the transmission of the said correspondence through any other channel than their respective Post Offices.
Nevertheless, it is understood that couriers sent by commercial firms or by other persons to convey, occasionally, a single letter, or one or more newspapers, may pass unmolested through the respective territories of both Powers, provided the said couriers exhibit on the French territory the letter or newspapers which they convey to the first Post Office on their route, which Office shall tax the said letter or newspapers with the rate prescribed by the laws and regulations of the country.
The said letter or newspapers shall be marked with the date and charge stamps of the Office at which the postage shall have been paid, and a certificate thereof shall be delivered to the courier and annexed to his passport.
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