62 STAT.] MULTILATERAL-UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION-JULY 5, 1947 ARTICLE 103. Routing of mails. 1. Each Administration is bound to forward, by the most rapid routes which it employs for its own dispatches, the closed mails and articles in open mail which are delivered to it by another Admin- istration. 2. When a mail is composed of several sacks, they shall, as far as possible, remain together and be forwarded in the same dispatch. 3. Missent articles of all kinds are forwarded without any delay to their destination by the most rapid route. 4. The Adminiistration of the country of origin has the option of indicating the route to be followed by the closed mails which it dis- patches, provided that the employment of that route does not involve special expenses for an intermediate Administration. With the same reservation, the Administrations intervening in the transportation shall take account of the route to be followed which has been indi- cated by the sender on articles sent to them in open mail. 5. Administrations which make use of the option of collecting supple- mentary charges, representing the extraordinary expenses pertaining to certain routes, are at liberty not to send unprepaid or insufficiently prepaid correspondence by those routes. ARTICLE 104. Distant countries. 1. Countries between which the shortest transit time by land or sea exceeds ten days, as well as those between which the average frequency of the mails is less than two trips a month, are considered as distant countries. 2. Countries of very great extent, or those whose internal routes of communication are but little developed, for questions where those factors play a decisive part, are assimilated to distant countries, in regard to the periods prescribed by the Convention and Agreements. 3. The International Bureau prepares a list of the countries men- tioned in Sections 1 and 2. ARTICLE 105. Fixing of equivalents. 1. Administrations fix the equivalents of the rates and fees con- templated by the Convention and Agreements by agreement with the Swiss Postal Administration, which latter Administration shall give notice of the equivalents through the intermediary of the Interna- tional Bureau. The same procedure is followed in case of change of equivalents. 2. The equivalents or changes of equivalents cannot enter into force except on the first of a month, and at the earliest fifteen days after their notification by the International Bureau. 3351 Missent articles. Optional routes. Unprepaid or insuf- ficient postage. .s, Entry into force.
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