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4. Eesolutions duly adopted are sanctioned, in the first two cases, by a diplomatic declaration, which the Government of the Swiss Confederation is charged with the duty of preparing and transmitting to all the Governments of the contracting countries, and in the third case by a simple notification from the International Bureau to all the administrations of the Union. 5. No modification or resolution adopted is binding until at least two months after its notification. Article XXVII. For the application of the foregoing articles XXII., XXV., and XXVI. the following are considered as forming one single country or administration, as the case may be : — (1.) The Empire of British India. (2.) The Dominion of Canada. (3.) The whole of the British Colonies of Australasia. (4.) The whole of the Danish Colonies. (5.) The whole of the Spanish Colonies. (6.) The whole of the French Colonies. (7.) The whole of the Dutch Colonies. (8.) The whole of the Portuguese Colonies. Article XXVIII. The present Convention shall come into operation on the Ist of July, 1892, and shall remain in force for an indefinite period ; but each contractiug party has the right of withdrawing from the Union by means of a notice given one year in advance by its Government to the Government of the Swiss Confederation. Article XXIX. 1. From the date on which the present Convention comes into effect, all the stipulations of the treaties, conventions, agreements, or other acts previously concluded between the various countries or administrations, in so far as those stipulations are not in accordance with the terms of the present Convention, are abrogated, without prejudice to the rights reserved by the foregoing Article XXI. 2. The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible. The acts of ratification shall be exchanged at Vienna. 3. In faith of which the plenipotentiaries of the above-named countries have signed the present Convention at Vienna, on the fourth of July, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one. [Here follow the signatures.] The I. and E. Minister of Foreign Affairs certifies that this is a correct copy of the original deposited in the archives of the Department. Vienna, 7.th July, 1891. [Here follow the signatures of the plenipotentiaries.] The Director of the Chancellerie of the I. and E. Minister of Foreign Affairs. (Signed) Mittag. Final Peotocol. At the moment of proceeding to sign the Conventions, settled by the Universal Postal Congress of Vienna, the under-mentioned plenipotentiaries have agreed as follows :— I. —In modification of the stipulation of Article VI. of the Convention, which fixes a maximum registration-fee of 25 centimes, it is agreed that the States outside Europe are authorised to maintain this maximum at 50 centimes, including a receipt given to the sender. II. —In modification of the stipulations of Article VIII. of the Convention, it is agreed that, as a temporary measure, the administrations of countries outside Europe, whose legislation is at present opposed to the principle of responsibility, retain the option of postponing the application of that principle until they shall have been able to obtain from the Legislature authority to introduce it. Up to that time the other administrations of the Union are not bound to pay an indemnity for the loss in their respective services of registered articles addressed to or originating in the said countries. 111. —Bolivia, Chili, Costa Eica, the Dominican Eepublic, Ecuador, Hayti, Honduras, and Nicaragua, which form part of the Postal Union, not having been represented at the Congress, the protocol remains open to them in order that they may adhere to the Conventions which have been concluded at it or only to one or other of them. The protocol also remains open to the British Colonies of Australasia whose delegates to the Congress have declared the intention of those countries to enter the Universal Postal Union on the Ist October, 1891. It also remains open to the South African Eepublic, whose delegate to the Congress has declared the intention of that country to adhere to the Universal Postal Union, reserving the fixture hereafter of a date for its entry into that Union. Finally, with the view of facilitating the entry into the Universal Postal Union of other countries which are still outside it, the protocol remains equally open to them. IV. —The protocol remains open to those countries whose representatives have signed to-day the principal Convention only, or only a certain number of the Conventions settled by the Congress, in order to admit of their adherence to the other Conventions signed this day, or to one or other of them. V. —The adhesions contemplated in the foregoing Article 111. must be notified tojihe Imperial and Eoyal Government of Austria-Hungary by the respective Governments in diplomatic form. The term accorded to them for that notification will expire on the Ist June, 1892. VI. —In case one or more of the contracting parties to the Postal Conventions signed to-day at Vienna shall not ratify one or other of those Conventions, that Convention shall be none the less valid for the States which shall have ratified it.