Part IV UNITED NATIONS: SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 41. CONVENTION ON UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION, REVISION OF JULY 5, 1947 (EXCERPTS)1 UNIVERSAL POSTAL CONVENTION CONCLUDED BETWEEN IST REPUBLIC, THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY, THE VATICAN CITY STATE, THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA, YEMEN AND THE FEDERAL PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA. The undersigned Plenipotentiaries of the Governments of the countries enumerated above, having assembled in Congress in Paris, in virtue of Article 13 of the Universal Postal Convention concluded at Buenos Aires on May 23, 1939, have, by mutual agreement and subject to ratification, revised the said Convention in conformity with the following provisions: TITLE I-UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION CHAPTER I-ORGANIZATION AND EXTENT OF THE UNION ARTICLE 1-CONSTITUTION AND PURPOSE OF THE UNION 1. The countries between which the present Convention is concluded form, under the name of Universal Postal Union, a single postal territory for the reciprocal exchange of correspondence. 2. The purpose of the Union is to assure the organization and perfection of the various postal services and to promote development and international collaboration in this field. ARTICLE 2-RELATIONS WITH UNITED NATIONS The Union shall be brought into relationship with the United Nations in accordance with the terms of the Agreement the text of which is annexed to the present Convention. 1. Any sovereign country may at any time request adhesion to the Convention. 2. The request for adhesion shall be addressed thru diplomatic channels to the Government of the Swiss Confederation, and by the latter to the members of the Union. 3. The country concerned shall be considered as admitted to membership if its request is approved by at least two-thirds of the countries which compose the Union. 4. Any countries consulted which have not replied within a period of four months shall be considered to have abstained. 5. Notification of admission to membership shall be given by the Government of the Swiss Confederation to the Governments of all the countries of the Union. ARTICLE 4- -CONVENTION AND AGREEMENTS OF THE UNION 1. The regular-mail service is governed by the provisions of the Convention. 2. Other services, such as those of insured letters and boxes, parcel post, C. O. D., money orders, postal checks, collection orders and subscriptions to newspapers and periodicals, form the subject of Agreements between countries of the Union. Such Agreements are binding only upon countries which have adhered to them. 3. Adhesion to one or more of those agreements is subject to the provisions of Article 3. ARTICLE 5-REGULATIONS OF EXECUTION The Postal Administrations of the countries of the Union, draw up, by mutual agreement, in the form of Regulations of Execution, the measures of order and detail necessary for the execution of the Convention and the Agreements. ARTICLE 6-RESTRICTED UNIONS. SPECIAL AGREEMENTS 1. The countries of the Union and, insofar as their legislation is not opposed to it, the Administrations, may establish restricted Unions. and make special agreements among themselves concerning the subjects dealt with in the Convention and its Regulations, on the condition, however, that they do not introduce therein any provisions less favorable, for the public, than those which are provided for by those Acts. 2. The same option is granted to the countries which participate in the Agreements and, as the case may be, to their Administrations, in regard to the subjects contemplated by those Acts and their Regula tions. ARTICLE 7-DOMESTIC LEGISLATION The provisions of the Convention and the Agreements of the Union do not affect the legislation of any country concerning anything which is not expressly provided for by those Acts. ARTICLE 8-COLONIES, PROTECTORATES, ETC. The following are considered as forming a single country or a single Administration of the Union, as the case may be, in the sense of the Convention and Agreements, particularly in regard to their right to vote in Congresses and Conferences and in the interval between meetings, as well as their contribution to the expenses of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union: 1. The whole of the Possessions of the United States of America, comprising Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands of the United States of America; 2. The Colony of the Belgian Congo; 3. The whole of the Spanish Colonies; 4. Algeria; 5. Indochina; 6. The whole of the other Oversea Territories of the French Republic and the Territories administered as such; 7. The whole of the British Oversea Territories, including the Colonies, the Protectorates and the Territories under a mandate or trusteeship exercised by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; 8. Curaçao and Surinam; 9. The Netherlands Indies; 10. The Portuguese Colonies in West Africa; 11. The Portuguese Colonies in East Africa, Asia and Oceania. ARTICLE 9-APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION TO COLONIES, 1. Any contracting party may declare, either at the time of its signature, ratification or adhesion, or subsequently, that its acceptance of the present Convention includes all its Colonies, oversea territories, protectorates and territories under suzerainty or mandate, or certain of them only. The said declaration, unless made at the time of signing the convention, shall be addressed to the Government of the Swiss Confederation. 2. The Convention will apply only to the colonies, oversea territories, protectorates or territories under suzerainty or mandate in whose name declarations have been made by virtue of Section 1. 3. Any contracting party may at any time address to the Government of the Swiss Confederation a notification with a view to denouncing the application of the convention to any colony, oversea territory, protectorate or territory under suzerainty or mandate in the name of which that party has made a declaration by virtue of Section 1. That notification will become effective one year after the date of its receipt by the Government of the Swiss Confederation. 4. The Government of the Swiss Confederation will transmit to all the contracting parties a copy of every declaration or notification. received by virtue of Sections 1 to 3. 5. The provisions of the present Article do not apply to any colony, oversea territory, protectorate or territory under suzerainty or mandate enumerated in the Preamble of the Convention. ARTICLE 10-EXTENT OF THE UNION The following are considered as belonging to the Universal Postal Union: a) The post offices established by countries of the Union in territories not included in the Union; b) Such other territories as, without being members of the Union, are included therein because they are, from the postal standpoint, within the jurisdiction of countries of the Union. ARTICLE 11-EXCEPTIONAL RELATIONS Administrations which serve territories not comprised in the Union are bound to act as intermediary for the other Administrations. The provisions of the Convention and its Regulations are applicable to such exceptional relations. ARTICLE 12-ARBITRATION 1. In the case of disagreement between two or more members of the Union as to the interpretation of the Convention and Agreements, as well as their Regulations of Execution, or as to the responsibility imposed upon an Administration by the application of those Acts, the question in dispute is settled by arbitration. To that end, each of the Administrations concerned chooses another member of the Union which is not directly interested in the matter. 2. If one of the Administrations involved in the dispute does not take any action on a proposal for arbitration within a period of six |