4
administration concerned, and shall have legal force after the approval by the respective Governments.
If within three months from the date of the dispatch by the board managing the through-traffic affairs of the report, together with the protocol, no replies should come forward from the administrations concerned, or in case of a protest being lodged within the said period against any of the resolutions of the conference, without mentioning the reasons for such protest, the execution of the resolutions passed by the conference shall not be suspended as a consequence of it.
9. The protocols of each conference shall be drawn up in Russian and in English, printed by order of the board managing the through-traffic affairs, and forwarded by the said board, in the required number of copies, to each of the administrations concerned.
ARTICLE 4.
The conveyance of the correspondence, forms, documents relating to accounts, as well as of the articles forwarded by the board managing the through-traffic affairs in connection with this traffic, shall be effected free of charge along the lines of all the carriers participating in the traffic.
ARTICLE 5.
1. The accounts relating to the through traffic in question are settled by the Returns Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin.
2. The materials necessary for the preparation of the account must be forwarded to the said Returns Department by the carriers, who have sold coupon-books, not later than the thirtieth day, according to the new calendar, of the month following the one during which the coupon-books were sold.
These materials must contain following particulars :—
(a.) The No. No., the number and the classes of the coupon-books sold by esel tariff station, also the route for which the said coupon-books were available, and the amount of money realised from the sale of coupon-books.
(b.) The No. No., and the date of issue by each tariff station of registered baggage receipts, showing the routes by which the haggage was forwarded, the gross weight, as well as the weight (above the amount allowed free) for which freight was paid, and the amount of freight realised for the conveyance of buggage.
If no coupon-books were sold during a certain month the carriers concerned should forward"nil" returns to the Returns Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin.
3. Wrongly stamped coupon-books, control-coupons of children tickets and spoiled baggage receipts should be properly grouped together, appended to the monthly account returns and forwarded to the Returns Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
4. The Returns Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway determines the amounts received and shares of the carriers who participated in the conveyance, and prepares a general abstract account, showing the debit and the credit totals of each administration separately.
Extracts from the general abstract account and from the return showing the distribution of shares must be forwarded to each of the administrations concerned.
5. Should discrepancies be discovered during the checking of the accounts by the controlling departments of the carriers concerned, these should be adjusted by means of written communication with the carrier who sold the coupon-book, as well as with the Returns Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin.
The claims to regulate discrepancies must be made before the expiration of the two years' term, counting the same from the date of the dispatch of the materials relating to the accounts by the above said Returns Department.
ARTICLE 6.
1. The passenger fares and the rates for the conveyance of baggage are indicated
in the tariff for the whole distance--
For the traffic from the stations of the Chinese Eastern and the Ussuri Railways to Japan-in roubles;
5
For the traffic from Japan to the stations of the Chinese Eastern and the Ussuri Railways--in yen.
In view of the above, the necessary conversions for the tariff tables of roubles into yen or yen into roubles shall be made according to the fixed rates of: 100 roubles
96 roubles 62 copees. and 100 yen 105 yen
2. The settlement of the amounts of balance shall be effected by the Returns Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway according to the following rulings
(a.) All the debit or the credit balances (in yen and roubles) of the Chinese Eastern and the Ussuri Railways and the Russian volunteer fleet are settled in rouble currency, and the respective accounts communicated to the administrations con. cerned.
(b.) All the debit or the credit balances (in yen and in roubles) of the Imperial Japanese and the South Manchuria Railways and the "Osaka Shosen Kaisha" Steam Shipping Company are settled in yen currency, and the respective accounts commu- nicated to the administrations concerned.
3. The rates of conversion indicated above in paragraph 1 do not apply where final settlements of accounts are concerned.
The Russian volunteer fleet pays to the Chinese Eastern Railway the shares of other carriers, and receives from the said railway its own shares in rouble currency through the Russo-Chinese Bank.
The Japanese carriers receive their own shares from the Chinese Eastern Railway -in yen currency, and pay to the said railway the shares of the other Russian carriers-in rouble currency, in both cases through the Russo-Chinese Bank, whereby the Imperial Japanese railways pay and receive their share through the South Manchuria Railway.
Any possible differences of the rates of exchange resulting from the above-shown manner of settlement of accounts the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Japanese carriers charge to their own accounts.
ARTICLE 7.
1. Claims for refund of money received for a coupon-book or for the conveyance
of baggage are settled by the railway which has sold the coupon-book, of which
no
use had been made of by the passenger, or which had been used only in part, with the consent, when necessary, of the other participants in the traffic.
2. The liability of the carriers concerned, as well as the amount of the award
to be paid for the total or partial loss, damage, or delay of baggage, are deter- mined by the application of tariff rules.
3. Claims relating to the payment of awards are settled either by the departure or by the destination railway, in accordance with the circumstance, to which of the two railways the claim had been presented, and also with the consent of the carriers concerned.
4. When it is impossible to discover the guilty carrier, or when, according to the decision of the court, the fault falls on several carriers participating in the conveyance without indication of the degree of the fault of each of them, the amount of award for the loss or damage of baggage, as well all other incidental expenses, are divided between the railways (and steamer companies as well) which participated in the conveyance in proportion to the distances from the departure to the destination
station.
5. In case of a disagreement between the carriers concerned as to the apportion- ment of the award, the claim in question shall be submitted to the conference,
6. The Returns Department of the Chinese Eastern Railway shall take every care
to see that the amounts advanced by the administration or hoard settling the claim for awards, interest, incidental and other expenses be refunded during the nearest monthly accounts.
ARTICLE 8.
1. The following shall be considered as expenditure to be divided between the carriers participating in this through traffic :—
(a.) The expenditure in connection with the printing of tariffs, tables of rates, protocols, conventions, &c., as well as the cost of the transport of the above publica- tions to their destinations.
[2948 c-3]
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276
Vov