The sum realised by the sale shall be used in the first place to defray the charges upon the parcel; any balance which there may be is remitted to the office of origin to be paid to the sender, on whom falls the expense of forwarding it.

If for any reason a sale is impossible, the spoilt or worthless articles are destroyed. A report of the sale or destruction is drawn up.

(9.) Parcels which have to be returned to the sender are entered on the parcel bill with the addition of the word "Rebut" (undeliverable) in the column for observations. They are dealt with and taxed like redirected parcels.

(10.) Any parcel of which the addressee has left for a country not participating in the Parcel Post service with the United Kingdom and China is dealt with as undeliverable, unless the office of the first destination be in a position to forward it to the addressee.

(11.) Provided that the formalities prescribed by the Customs authorities concerned are fulfilled, the Customs charges, properly so called, on parcels destroyed, abandoned by the sender, sent back to the country of origin, or redirected to another country, shall be cancelled both in the United Kingdom and China.

11.-(1.) Each Administration shall cause each of its exchanging offices to prepare quarterly for all the mails received from the exchanging offices of the other Administration a statement, in conformity with specimen K appended* to the present Regulations, of the sums entered in each parcel bill, whether to its credit or to its debit.

(2.) The statements K shall be afterwards recapitulated by the same Administration in an account conforming to specimen L also appended* to the present Regulations.

(3.) This account, accompanied by the quarterly statements, the parcel bills, and, if any, the verification notes relating thereto, shall be submitted to the examination of the corresponding Administration in the course of the quarter which follows that to which it relates.

(4.) The quarterly accounts, after having been verified and accepted on both sides, shall be summarised in an annual general account by the Administration to which the balance is due.

(5.) The payment resulting from the balance of these accounts between the two Administrations shall be made by the indebted office in effective francs by means of bills drawn on Paris, or in any other manner which may be mutually agreed upon, the expense attendant on the payment being at the charge of the indebted office.

* Not printed.

(6.) The drawing up, transmission, and payment of the accounts must be effected as early as possible, at the latest before the expiration of the following year. After the expiration of this term, the sums due from one Administration to the other shall bear interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, to be reckoned from the date of expiration of the said term.

12. The present detailed Regulations shall be brought into operation on the day on which the Agreement of the 17th April/1st June, 1917, comes into force, and shall have the same duration as that Agreement. The Administrations interested shall, however, have the power by common consent to modify the details from time to time.

Done in duplicate and signed at London, the 17th day of April, 1917, and at Peking, the 1st day of June, 1917. In the name of the Post Office of the United Kingdom: (L.S.) ALBERT H. ILLINGWORTH. In the name of the Postal Administration of China: (L.S.) H. PICARD DESTELAN,

Associate Director-General of Posts.

(L.S.) YAO KUOCHEN,

Director-General of Posts.

AGREEMENT between Great Britain and France respecting the Liability to Military Service of British Subjects in France and French Citizens in Great Britain.-Paris, October 4, 1917.*

His Britannic Majesty's Government and the Government of the French Republic, being convinced that it is in the interest of their respective countries that, for the better prosecution of this present war, British subjects now residing in France and French citizens now residing in Great Britain shall either return to their own country to perform military service in its Army, or shall serve in the Army of the country in which they remain, have concluded the following Agree

ART. 1.-Every male British subject in France who at the date of the signing of this Agreement has attained the age of 18 and has not attained the age of 41, and who, if he were for the time being resident in Great Britain, would be liable for service in the British Army, and every male French citizen in Great Britain who, at the date of this Agreement has * Parliamentary Paper, "Miscellaneous, No. 15 (1917)." Signed also

reached the age of 18 and has not reached the age of 41, and who, being liable by the law of France to serve in the French Army, has been summoned by the competent French authority to present himself for service in France, shall either return to his own country or shall become liable for service in the Army of the country in which he remains:

Provided that no male British subject in France between the ages of 18 and 41 and no male French citizen in Great Britain between the ages of 18 and 41 shall be regarded by the French Government and the British Government respectively as excepted from the operation of this article on the ground of non-liability to military service by the law of his own country unless he holds a certificate of such non-liability issued to him by or on behalf of the British Ambassador in Paris and the French Ambassador in London respectively.

II. For the purposes of this Agreement persons possessing both French and British nationality shall be considered as possessing exclusively the nationality of the country in which they are at the date of this Agreement.

III. The British Ambassador in Paris and the French Ambassador in London shall be respectively entitled in any special case to issue a certificate of exemption to a British subject remaining in France and a French citizen remaining in Great Britain from liability to military service in that country.

IV. The holder either of a certificate of non-liability given under the proviso to Article I, or of a special certificate of exemption given under Article III, who does not elect to return to his own country shall not be required to serve in the Army of the country in which he remains.

V. Every male British subject in France between the ages of 18 and 41 who has not left France for Great Britain within 30 days after the date of the Order in Council* applying this Agreement in Great Britain, and who does not hold either a certificate of non-liability given under the proviso to Article I or a special certificate of exemption given under Article III hereof, and every male French citizen in Great Britain between the ages of 18 and 41 who has not left Great Britain for France within 30 days after the date of the Order in Council applying this Agreement in Great Britain, and who does not hold either a certificate of non-liability given. under the proviso to Article I or a special certificate of exemption given under Article III hereof, shall become liable, on the expiration of this period, to serve in the French or British Army respectively.

Neither the French Government nor the British Government shall be under any obligation to pay the expenses of the

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return of a British subject from France to Great Britain or of a French citizen from Great Britain to France, but opportunities shall be given by the competent authorities to every British subject in France and every French citizen in Great Britain who may wish to return to his own country in accordance with the provisions of Article I of this Agreement.

VI. This Agreement shall not apply to any French citizen in Great Britain who came to Great Britain after the 1st August, 1914, or who at a subsequent date deserted from the French Army after service with the colours, and His Majesty's Government will, at the request of the French Government, use every lawful means to secure that any such persons shall forthwith return to France.

VII. The French Government may take such steps as are necessary by law to secure that any British subject in France who, under the terms of this Agreement, becomes liable to serve in the French Army, shall so serve, and the British Government may take such steps as are necessary by law to secure that any French citizen in Great Britain who, under the terms of this Agreement, becomes liable to serve in the British Army, shall so serve:

Provided that a subject or citizen of either Contracting Party liable under the terms of this Agreement to serve or serving in the Army of the other Contracting Party shall be treated in regard to conditions of service, pay, allowance, pensions, rights of exemption on medical or other grounds, medical re-examination, and discharge, in all respects in the same manner as a subject or citizen of the country in which he is for the time being resident.

VIII. This Agreement shall also apply to any male British subject in France and to any male French citizen in Great Britain who, being under the age of 18 at the date of the Agreement, attains the age of 18 during the continuance of the war, with the modification that in any such case liability to serve in the French or British Army respectively shall not arise till 30 days after the attainment of the age of 18.

IX. The liability to military service in the French Army imposed on British subjects under this Agreement, and the liability to military service in the British Army imposed on French citizens under this Agreement, shall cease upon the termination of the present war.

In faith whereof the undersigned, duly authorised to that effect by their respective Governments, have signed the present Agreement and have affixed thereto their seals.

Done at Paris in duplicate, this 4th day of October, 1917. (L.S.) BERTIE OF THAME

AGREEMENT between Great Britain and France respecting British War Graves in France.-Paris, November 26, 1918.*

Le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté britannique et le Gouvernement de la République française, animés du même désir d'honorer la mémoire des soldats britanniques tombés au champ d'honneur sur le territoire français, ont convenu ce qui suit:

ᎪᎡᎢ . I. La Commission Impériale des Sépultures militaires, constituée par la Charte Royale du 10 mai, 1917, est reconnue par le Gouvernement français comme le seul organisme officiel britannique, chargé de veiller en France à la conservation des sépultures militaires britanniques.

II. Les tombes isolées de militaires britanniques se trouvant dans les régions des anciens champs de bataille pourront être relevées aussitôt après la cessation des hostilités, en vue de grouper les corps dans des cimetières militaires.

Dans le cas où, avant la cessation des hostilités, certaines de ces régions ne feraient plus partie de la zone des armées, la Commission Impériale des Sépultures militaires pourra demander au Gouvernement français l'autorisation de relever les tombes qui s'y trouvent placées. Le Gouvernement français déclare être disposé à examiner les demandes, qui pourraient lui être présentées dans ces conditions, avec le vif désir d'y donner satisfaction dans toute la mesure où les circonstances le permettront.

Dès que le groupement des tombes isolées aura été autorisé, et au plus tard au moment de la cessation des hostilités, le Gouvernement français s'engage à donner des instructions aux autorités préfectorales et municipales pour que celles-ci accordent les autorisations nécessaires d'exhumations et de transports des corps dans des cimetières militaires.

Lorsque, en vue du groupement ultérieur des tombes isolées, la création de nouveaux cimetières militaires sera reconnue nécessaire par la Commission Impériale des Sépultures militaires, celle-ci formulera des propositions et les transmettra au Ministre de la Guerre (Direction du Génie), qui, d'accord avec elle, prendra toutes dispositions utiles pour l'acquisition des terrains.

III. Les exhumations des corps inhumés dans les cimetières ou les sépultures militaires, en vue de leur transport dans le Royaume-Uni ou dans une autre partie de l'Empire britannique, n'auront lieu que d'accord avec la Com

"Treaty Series No. 1 (1919)."