AGREEMENT between Great Britain and Bolivia for the Exchange of Postal Money Orders.-Signed at La Paz, February 12, 1912.*

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, &c., and the President of the Republic of Bolivia, being desirous to conclude an agreement for the exchange of postal money orders, have for that purpose appointed as their Plenipotentiaries:

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, &c., Cecil William Gustaf Gosling, Esquire, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Bolivia;

and

His Excellency the President of the Republic of Bolivia, his Excellency Doctor Claudio Pinilla, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Worship;

Who, after having mutually communicated their full powers, found in good order and due form, have agreed to the following Articles :

ART. I. There shall be a regular exchange of money orders between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Republic of Bolivia.

II. The money order service between the contracting countries shall be performed exclusively by the agency of offices of exchange.

On the part of the United Kingdom the office of exchange shall be that of London, and on the part of Bolivia that of La Paz.

III. In view of the fluctuations in the rate of exchange between the two countries, it is agreed that the accounts, as regards money orders in both directions, shall be expressed in British money.

The Post Office of Bolivia shall convert into British money the amounts of orders issued in Bolivia and into Bolivian money the amounts of orders issued in the United Kingdom. The rate of conversion shall be in accordance with the rate of exchange current at La Paz on the date of the despatch of the advice list from the Bolivian Office of Exchange in the case of orders issued in Bolivia, and on the date of the receipt of the advice list in the Bolivian Office of Exchange in the case of orders issued in the United Kingdom.

IV. The Post Offices of the two contracting countries shall have the power to fix, by mutual consent, the maximum amount for single money orders issued under this Agreement in their respective countries.

• 15 "Treaty Series No. 15 (1912)." Signed also in the Spanish language.

This maximum shall not, however, exceed 407., or the nearest practical equivalent of that sum in the money of the country of

issue.

V. All payments for money orders, whether to or by the public, if not in gold, shall be made to the nearest practical equivalent.

VI. The British Post Office and the Post Office of Bolivia shall each have the power to fix, from time to time, the rates of commission to be charged on all money orders they may respectively issue, but the table of rates adopted and any subsequent alterations shall be communicated reciprocally.

The commission shall belong to the issuing office; but the British Post Office shall pay to the Post Office of Bolivia one-half of 1 per cent. (per cent.) on the amount of money orders issued in the United Kingdom and payable in Bolivia, and the Post Office of Bolivia shall make a like payment to the British Post Office for money orders issued in Bolivia and payable in the United Kingdom.

VII. In the payment of money orders to the public no account shall be taken of any fraction of a penny or of a centavo.

VIII. No money order shall be issued unless the applicant furnish in full the surname and the Christian name (or at least the initial of the Christian name) both of the remitter and of the payee, or the name of the firm or company who are the remitters or payees, and the address of the remitter and payee. If, however, any applicant for a money order shall tender the name of either the remitter or the payee at greater length, such particulars shall be received and duly entered on the relative list. When the Christian name or the initial cannot be given an order may be issued at the remitter's risk.

IX. In the event of a money order being lost or destroyed, a duplicate shall be granted on a written application from the payee (containing the necessary particulars) to the chief money order office of the country where the original order was payable, and such chief office shall be authorized to demand in every such case a new commission, unless the order shall have been lost in transmission through the post.

On the receipt of an application containing the same particulars from the remitter, instructions shall be given to stop payment of a money order.

X. When it is desired that an error in the name of the remitter or of the payee shall be corrected, or that the amount of a money order shall be repaid to the remitter, application must be made to the chief office of the country in which the order was issued.

XI. Repayment of an order shall not, in any case, be made until it has been ascertained, through the chief office of the country where such order is payable, that the order has not been paid, and that the said office authorizes the repaymen.

XII. The remitter of a money order may obtain an advice of payment of the order by paying in advance, to the exclusive

profit of the Administration of the country of issue, a fixed charge equal to that which is made in that country for acknowledgments of receipt of registered correspondence.

If an advice of payment of an order is applied for at the time of issue, the letters "A. P." shall be written in the advice list (see Article XV) against the entry of the order, and the exchange office of the country of payment shall arrange for the preparation and despatch to the office of issue from the office of payment of a form of advice of payment.

This form shall be in conformity with or analogous to that marked "A" in the Appendix, and, on receipt of the form at the office of issue, that office shall forward it to the remitter.

If application for an advice of payment is made subsequent to the issue of an order, a form of advice of payment, giving full particulars of the order and of the advising, shall be sent by the exchange office of the country of issue to the exchange office of the country of payment, which shall arrange for its completion and despatch to the office of issue.

All advices of payment of "through" orders shall be sent through the exchange offices of the two countries.

XIII. Orders shall remain payable in each country for twelve months after the expiration of the month of issue, and the amounts of all money orders not paid within that period shall revert to and remain the property of the Administration of the country of issue.

XIV. Money orders issued in either country for payment in the other shall be subject, as regards issue and payment, to the laws and regulations in force in the internal services.

XV. Each office of exchange shall communicate to the other by every mail the sums received in its country for payment in the other, and the annexed forms (B) and (C) shall be used for this purpose.

In order to prevent inconvenience in the event of an original list being lost, each office shall forward to the other by every mail a duplicate of the list sent by the preceding mail. A blank list shall be sent when there are no orders to advise.

XVI. Every money order entered upon the lists shall bear a number (to be known as the "international number"), commencing each month with No. 1.

Similarly, each list shall bear a serial number commencing every year with No. 1.

XVII. The receipt of each list shall be acknowledged on either side by means of the first subsequent list forwarded in the opposite direction, and any missing list shall be immediately applied for by the office of exchange to which it should have been sent. The dispatching office of exchange shall, in such case, transmit without delay to the receiving office of exchange a duplicate list duly certified as such.

XVIII. The lists shall be carefully verified by the office of exchange to which they are sent, and corrected when they contain manifest errors.

The corrections shall be communicated to the dispatching office of exchange in the acknowledgment of the receipt of the list in which the corrections were made.

When these lists show other irregularities, the office of exchange receiving them shall require an explanation from the dispatching office of exchange, which shall give such explanation with as little delay as possible.

In the meantime the issue of internal money orders relating to the entries on the list which are found to be irregular shall be suspended.

XIX. As soon as the list shall have reached the receiving office of exchange that office shall prepare internal money orders in favour of the payees for the equivalents, in the money of the country of payment, of the amounts specified in the list, and shall then forward such internal money orders to the payees or to the paying offices in conformity with the arrangements existing in each country for the payment of money orders.

XX. At the end of every month the La Paz office shall prepare and forward to the Controller, Money Order Department, London, a list of the orders issued in the United Kingdom and payable in Bolivia which have not been paid within twelve months after the end of the month of issue, and have therefore become forfeited to the country of issue. (See Appendix (D).)

The London office will similarly furnish to the PostmasterGeneral of Bolivia at La Paz monthly lists of orders issued in Bolivia on the United Kingdom which have not been paid within twelve months after the end of the month of issue.

XXI. At the end of every quarter the Exchange Office at La Paz shall furnish to the Exchange Office at London a money order account (in duplicate), which shall include the following items:

(a.) On the debit side (to the credit of the United Kingdom) the total of the lists dispatched from La Paz during the quarter, the allowance due on the transactions (Article VI), the total amount of British orders authorized during the quarter to be repaid to the remitters, the total amount of British orders which have become void during the quarter, and the amount of the balance, if any, due to the Bolivian office.

(b.) On the credit side (to the credit of Bolivia) the total of the lists which have been despatched from London during the quarter, the allowance due on the transactions, the total amount of the orders authorized to be repaid in Bolivia, the total amount of the Bolivian orders which have become void during the quarter, and the amount of the balance, if any, due to the British office.

The money order account shall be prepared on a form similar to that in the Appendix (E), and shall be accompanied by detailed statements of the lists forwarded in both directions and of the repaid and void orders (see Appendices (F), (G), and (II)). One copy of the account duly accepted shall be returned to La Paz.

XXII. Whenever during a quarter it is found that the orders drawn upon one of the two countries exceed in amount by 1,000l. the orders drawn upon the other, the latter shall at once send to the former, as a remittance on account, the approximate amount, in a round sum, of the ascertained difference.

XXIII. When the Bolivian Post Office has to pay to the British Post Office the balance of the account, the Bolivian Administration shall pay such balance at the time that it sends the account; and when the British Post Office has to pay the balance a similar course shall be followed by the London office in returning to La Paz the duplicate of the account accepted.

Such payment, as well as any payments made in accordance with the provisions of Article XXII, shall be made in sterling by means of drafts payable on demand at London.

XXIV. Should the Post Office of Bolivia desire to send money order remittances through the medium of the British Post Office to any of the foreign countries, British colonies, &c., with which the British Post Office transacts money order business, it shall be at liberty to do so, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled:

:

(a.) The Post Office of Bolivia shall advise the amounts of such through" orders to the Money Order Department, London, which will readvise them to the exchange offices of the countries of payment.

(b.) No such order shall exceed the maximum amount fixed by the country of destination for money orders issued in the United Kingdom.

(c.) The particulars of "through" orders shall be entered either in red ink at the end of the ordinary advice lists dispatched to London or on separate sheets, the total amounts of the "through" orders being included in the totals of such lists.

(d.) The names and addresses of the payees, including the names of the town and country of payment, shall be given as fully as possible.

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(e.) The Post Office of Bolivia shall allow to the London office the same percentage (see Article VI) on through orders as on orders payable in the United Kingdom, the London office crediting the office of the country of payment with the same percentage for the "through" orders as for the orders issued in the United Kingdom, and for its intermediary services deducting from the amount of each readvised order a special commission to be fixed by the British Post Office.

Should the British Post Office desire to send money orders through the medium of the Post Office of Bolivia to any countries with which the Post Office of Bolivia transacts money order business it shall be at liberty to do so under similar conditions to those stated in the foregoing paragraphs.

Each Administration shall communicate to the other the names of the countries with which it transacts money order