AGREEMENT between Great Britain and the United States for the Exchange of Money Orders between the two Countries.-London, July 1923. Washington,

December 8, 1923.

ART. I. In this Agreement the expression Great Britain includes Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

II. Between Great Britain and the United States of America there shall be a regular exchange of money orders.

The Post Office of each of the Contracting Countries shall have power to fix the maximum amount for single orders issued in its country. This maximum shall not exceed 100 dollars in the case of orders issued in the United States of America or £40 in the case of orders issued in Great Britain. No money order shall include a fraction of a penny or of a

cent.

III. The money order service between the two countries shall be performed exclusively by the agency of Offices of Exchange. On the part of Great Britain the Office of Exchange shall be that of London, and on the part of the United States that of New York.

Orders shall be drawn only on the authorised money order offices of the respective countries, and each Postal Administration shall furnish to the other a list of such offices, and shall notify any addition to or change in the said list.

IV. Each of the Contracting Administrations shall have power to fix, from time to time, the rate of conversion applicable to money orders issued by it, on condition of notifying that rate to the other Administration.

The conversion into United States money of sums advised by Great Britain for payment in the United States shall be effected at the British Exchange Office, and the conversion into British money of sums advised by the United States for payment in Great Britain shall be checked and certified by the United States Exchange Office.

V. The British Post Office and the Post Office of the United States shall each have the power to fix, from time to time, the rates of commission to be charged on the money orders which they may respectively issue, and each office shall communicate to the other its tariff of charges or rates of commission established under the present Agreement. The commission shall belong to the Post Office of the country of issue, but the British Post Office shall allow to the Post Office of the United States one-half of 1 per cent. (per cent.) on the amount of money orders issued in Great Britain for payment in the United States, and the United States Post Office shall make a similar allowance to the British Post Office for money

orders issued in the United States for payment in Great Britain.

VI. The applicant for every money order shall be required to furnish, if possible, the full surname and Christian name (or at least the initial of one 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, a Christian name or initial cannot be given, an order may nevertheless be issued at the remitter's risk.

VII. In the event of a money order's miscarrying or being lost, a duplicate shall be issued 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, unless there is reason to believe that the original order was lost in transmission through the post, the office issuing the duplicate shall be entitled to charge the same fee as would be chargeable under its own internal regulations.

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

IX. Repayment of an order shall not, in any case, be made until it has been ascertained, through the Chief Office of the country in which such order is payable, that the order has not been paid and that the said office authorises the repayment.

X. Orders shall remain payable in each country for twelve months after the expiration of the mouth of issue, and the amounts of all money orders not paid within that period shall be returned to the Administration of the country of issue to be dealt with in accordance with the regulations of that country.

XI. Money orders sent from one country to the other shall be subject, as regards issue, to the rules in force in the country of origin, and, as regards payment, to the rules in force in the country of destination.

XII. The advices of all money orders issued upon Great Britain by post offices of the United States shall be sent to the Office of Exchange at New York, where they shall be impressed with a dated stamp, showing the amount to be paid in British money. They shall then be transmitted by the next mail to the Money Order Department, London, accompanied by a list drawn up on the model of Appendix (A).

On receipt at the Office of Exchange in London, the advices shall be despatched to the paying offices without being checked against the advice lists, but the British Post

Office shall accept responsibility for the correctness of the advice in any case where the particulars on the advice lists and the advice differ.

In like manner, the advices of money orders drawn on the United States by post offices in Great Britain shall be sent to the Money Order Department, London, where they shall be impressed with a dated stamp, showing the amounts to be paid in United States money. They shall then be despatched by the next mail to the Office of Exchange at New York, accompanied by a list on the model of Appendix (B).

On receipt at the Office of Exchange in New York the advices shall be checked against the advice lists and shall then be despatched to the paying offices.

XIII. The lists despatched from each Office of Exchange shall be numbered consecutively, commencing with No. 1 at the beginning of the month of July in each year, and the entries in the lists shall also have consecutive numbers.

In order to prevent inconvenience in case an original list should be lost, each office shall forward to the other by every mail a copy of the list sent by the preceding mail.

Each Office of Exchange shall promptly communicate to the other the correction of any simple error which it may discover in the verification of the lists. When the lists show irregularities which the receiving office is unable to rectify, that office shall apply for an explanation to the despatching office, and the despatching office shall furnish an explanation without delay.

XIV. If the United States Post Office should 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 United States Post Office shall advise the amount of each such through" order to the Money Order Department, London, which shall re-advise it to the Exchange Office of the country of payment.

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

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

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(d.) The name and address of the payee of a through order, including the name of the town and that of the country of payment, shall be given as fully as possible.

(e.) The United States Post Office shall allow to the

British Post Office the same percentage (see Article V) on through" orders as on orders payable in Great Britain, the London Office crediting the office of the country of payment with the same percentage for "through" orders as for orders issued in Great Britain, and, for its intermediary service, deducting from the amount of each readvised order a special commission to be fixed by the British Post Office.

(f.) When the amount of a through order is repaid to the remitter, the commission charged for the intermediary service shall not be refunded.

If the British Post Office should desire to send money orders through the medium of the United States Post Office to any countries with which the United States Post Office transacts money order business, it shall be at liberty to do so, under similar conditions to those set out in the foregoing paragraphs.

Each Administration shall communicate to the other the names of the countries with which it transacts money order business, the limit of amount adopted for each and the rates of commission deducted for its intermediary service.

XV. At the end of every month the United States Post Office shall prepare and forward to the Controller, Money Order Department, London, a list, on the model of Appendix (D), of orders issued in Great Britain of which the repayment in Great Britain is authorised, and a list, on the model of Appendix (E), of orders issued in Great Britain which have not been paid within twelve months after the month of issue and have therefore become forfeited to the country of issue.

The Money Order Department in London shall furnish to the United States Post Office monthly two similar lists in respect of orders issued in the United States.

XVI. As soon as possible after the end of every month the Money Order Department in London shall furnish to the Auditor for the Post Office Department of the United States, Washington, a money order account (in duplicate), which shall include the following items:

(a.) To the credit of the United States-the total of the lists despatched from London during the month and the allowance due on the transactions (Article V), less the total amount of orders authorised during the month to be repaid in Great Britain and the total amount of British orders which have become void during the month.

(b.) To the credit of Great Britain-the total of the lists despatched from New York during the month and the allowance due on the transactions (Article V), less the total amount of orders authorised during the month to be repaid in the United States and the total amount of United States orders which have become void during the month.

The money order account shall be prepared on a form drawn up on the model of Appendix (C), and shall be accompanied by detailed statements of the lists forwarded in both directions and of the repaid and void orders. One copy of the account, duly accepted, shall be returned to London.

XVII. The balance of the account shall be shown in the currency of the country in which it is due, and, in order that this may be done, the amount of the smaller credit shall be converted into the currency of the country with the larger credit at the mean rate for sight drafts current during the month to which the account relates. The balance shall then be ascertained by the deduction of the smaller from the larger credit. These arrangements may be modified by Agreement between the two Contracting Administrations when they consider it desirable.

XVIII. Whenever during a month it is found that the amount of the orders drawn upon one of the two countries exceeds the amount of the orders drawn upon the other by £5,000, or the equivalent of that sum in dollars, 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.

If, moreover, it is established that the orders advised in one direction habitually exceed by considerable amounts the orders advised in the reverse direction, the indebted Administration shall remit, on or about the date of despatch of each list, the proportion of the amount of such list estimated to be due.

If the amount of the remittances in respect of a month which have been despatched up to ten days after the close of that month is found to fall short of the ascertained balance for the month by more than £10,000, or the equivalent of that sum in dollars, interest on the amount due at the rate of 7 per cent. per annum shall be payable as from the end of

the month.

XIX. When the United States Post Office has to pay the balance of the account it shall do so at the time of returning to London the duplicate of the account accepted, and when the British Post Office has to pay the balance it shall do so immediately after the receipt of the accepted account from Washington.

Such payments, as well as any payments required under the provisions of Article XVIII, shall be made by means of bills of exchange payable on demand in the creditor country and in the currency of that country.

XX. Should it appear at any time that money orders are used by mercantile men or others in Great Britain, or in the United States, for the transmission of large sums of money, the British Post Office or the United States Post Office, as