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Article XVII. 1. Offices of the Union which have relations with countries situate outside the Union admit all the other offices of the Union to take advantage of these relations for the exchange of correspondence with the said countries. 2. Correspondence exchanged a decouvert between a country of the Union and a country foreign to the Union, through the medium of another country of the Union, is treated, as regards the conveyance beyond the limits of the Union, in conformity with the conventions, agreements, or special provisions governing the postal relations between the latter country and the country foreign to the Union. 3. With regard to the charges for transit within the limits of the Union, correspondence originating in or addressed to a country foreign to the Union is assimilated to that from or for the country of the Union which maintains the relations with the aforesaid country. 4. With regard to the charges for transit outside the limits of the Union, correspondence addressed to a country foreign to the Union is subject to the under-mentioned transit charges, which are credited to the Union country maintaining the relations with the country foreign to it: —■ (a.) For sea transits outside the Union, 20 francs per kilogramme of letters or post-cards, and 1 franc per kilogramme of other articles ; (b.) For territorial transits outside the Union, if any, the charges per kilogramme notified by the country of the Union which maintains the relations with the intermediate country foreign to the Union. 5. In the case of sea conveyance effected by two or more administrations, the charges for the total sea transit, within and without the Union, may not exceed 20 francs per kilogramme of letters or post-cards, and 1 franc per kilogramme on other articles; these charges are divided between such administrations in proportion to the distances traversed, without prejudice to other arrangements between the parties concerned. 6. The above-mentioned charges for transit outside the Qaion are payable by the administration of the country of origin. They apply to all correspondence despatched, whether a decouvert or in closed mails. But in the case of closed mails sent from a country of the Union to a country foreign thereto, or from a country outside the Union to a country within it, an arrangement concerning the mode of payment of the transit charges must be concluded beforehand between the administrations concerned. 7. The general accounting for the transit charges on correspondence exchanged between a country of the Union and a country foreign to it, through the medium of another country of the Union, takes place on the basis of statements which are prepared at the same time as the statements drawn up, by virtue of the foregoing Arcicle IV., for determining the charges for transit within the Union. 8. The rates to be levied in a country of the Union on correspondence addressed to or coming from a country foreign to the Union, and using the services of another country of the Union, can never be lower than the normal Union tariff. These rates belong entirely to the country which levies them. Articte XVIII. The high contracting parties undertake to adopt, or to propose to their respective Legislatures, the necessary measures for punishing the fraudulent use of counterfeit postage-stamps, or stamps already used, for the prepayment of correspondence. They also undertake to adopt, or to propose to their respective Legislatures, the necessary measures for prohibiting and repressing, the fraudulent manufacture, sale, hawking, or distribution of embossed and adhesive stamps in use in the postal service, forged or imitated in such a manner as to be mistakable for the embossed and adhesive stamps issued by the administration of any one of the contracting countries. Article XIX. The services concerning letters and boxes of declared value, postal money-orders, postal parcels, collection of bills and drafts, certificates of identity, subscriptions to newspapers, &c, form the subject of special arrangements between the various countries or groups of countries composing the Union. Article XX. 1. The postal administrations of the various countries composing the Union are competent to draw up, by common consent, in the form of detailed regulations, all the measures of order and detail which are judged necessary. 2. The several administrations may, moreover, make amongst themselves the necessary arrangements on the subject of questions which do not concern the Union generally, provided that those arrangements do not derogate from the present Convention. . 3. The administrations concerned are, however, permitted to come to mutual arrangements for the adoption of lower rates of postage within a radius of 30 kilometres. Article XXI. 1, The present Convention does not involve alteration in the legislation of any country as regards anything which is not provided for by the stipulations contained in this Convention. 2. It does not restrict the right of the contracting parties to maintain and to conclude treaties, as well as to maintain and establish more restricted Unions, with a view to the improvement of postal relations.