administration is to pay the Chinese Eastern Railway a sum of ten thousand eight hundred roubles (Rs. 10,800) for the first year. Payments will be made quarterly.

4. All such public mails as can not be put into these compartments, for lack of space, will be carried in the baggage cars or goods cars of the mail trains and mixed trains (i.e., for the conveyance of mails and passengers), and will pay twice the tariff for baggage in force on the lines of the Chinese Eastern Railway. NOTE. Exception is to be made in the case of printed matter, newspapers, etc., the price of transporting which will be the subject of a special agreement.

5.-The expenses incident to the alteration and putting into order of the compartments in the mail cars for the transportation of Chinese official mails will be chargeable to the Chinese Postal Administration, which will furthermore pay a sum of three hundred roubles (Rs. 300) per year per car for the upkeep and ordinary repairs of these compartments.

6. It is strictly forbidden to carry anything but postal matter in the compartments reserved for the Chinese posts in the mail cars.

7.-The Chinese Eastern Railway assumes no responsibility in regard to the safety of the Chinese mails transported in its cars.

Done in double original at Peking, February 6/19, 1909, and signed:

GREAT BRITAIN (Pauling & Company, Limited) AND CHINA.

Agreement for a preliminary survey for a railway line from Kueilin to Ch'uanchou.-May 19, 1909.

CHANG, Governor of Kwangsi, Vice President of the Army Board, being about to engage engineers to make a preliminary survey of a railway line from Kueilin to Ch'uan-chou, such survey to be used for the eventual construction of the line, hereby enters into the following agreement with Messrs. Pauling & Company Limited to undertake a preliminary survey and engage two engineers to proceed to Kueilin and Ch'uan-chou and conduct such survey.

1.-Messrs. Pauling & Company Limited undertake to make a survey from Kueilin to the boundary of Kwangsi and Hunan provinces at the Huang Sha River in Ch'uan-chou with a view to its being used for the eventual construction of a section of railway by the provincial authorities, between these two places.

Such survey is to be carried out in accordance with the terms of the Memorandum drawn up by the Engineer-in-Chief of the Canton-Kowloon Railway which forms a separate document.

Messrs. Pauling and Company Limited undertake to engage two first class engineers whose salaries and expenses from England to Kueilin, during the survey operations between Kueilin and Ch'uan-chou and on their return to England, are all included in the lump sum of three thousand four hundred pounds sterling which the provincial authorities of Kwangsi undertake to pay for the survey.

2.-Messrs. Pauling and Company Limited having undertaken to engage, on behalf of the authorities of Kwangsi two engineeers to undertake the survey in accordance with the terms of the Memorandum forming the separate document, it is hereby stipulated that there will be no careless or inadequate work performed in connection with the survey.

If it should prove that there has been any careless or inadequate work, Messrs. Pauling and Company Limited will send another engineer to make a fresh survey.

3.-Messrs. Pauling and Company Limited shall only be concerned with the survey. If eventually, the province of Kuangsi wishes to build the railway no matter whether it is built by the province itself or whether the contract for its construction is given to foreigners, the provincial authorities reserve the right to form an independent decision in which Messrs. Pauling and Company shall have no concern.

4. The distance between Kueilin and Ch'uan-chou via the Huang Sha River is roughly 100 English miles, or 330 Chinese li. If, when the survey comes to be made, it is found that the exact distance is less or more than the estimate, the contract price of £3,400 shall nevertheless be adhered to and no extra charge shall be made over and above this amount on the score of the estimated length of 100 miles having been exceeded.

5. Messrs. Pauling and Company Limited shall supply all necessary surveying instruments.

6. All living expenses of the engineers conducting the survey together with all expenses for servants, bearers, transport of baggage, and surveying instruments, boats, and coolies, will be borne by Messrs. Pauling and Company Limited.

7.—It will be necessary to provide an escort to protect the engineers in making their survey. The salaries of the officers and the pay of the men will be

defrayed by the Kwangsi authorities.

8.-Two Chinese interpreters conversant with the English language will be required for the survey. Their salaries will be paid by the provincial authorities. These interpreters shall be graduates of the Naval College who have qualified in surveying. These interpreters will accompany the engineers over the whole route. The engineers will utilise all occasions to teach them surveying methods in order

that, on completion of the survey and plans they will not be liable to fall into any errors.

9. The contract price of £3,400 will be paid in five instalments. The first instalment of £500 will be paid on the date of signature of this agreement. £500 will be paid on arrival of the engineers at Kueilin. £1,000 will be paid when more than half the survey is completed. £1,000 will be paid when, on completion of the survey, the estimate and plans are handed in. As soon as the estimates and plans have been passed by an engineer of standing, and it is established that they do not deviate in any way from the lines laid down in the memorandum forming the separate document, the remaining £400 will be paid.

10. The engineers sent by Messrs. Pauling & Company Limited must obey the regulations of the Board of Communications.

In the event of misconduct on the part of the engineers or infringement of the Board's regulations, Messrs. Pauling & Company Limited shall immediately dismiss the offending party and substitute another engineer at their own expense, the Provincial Authorities not being answerable in any way.

Messrs. Pauling & Company will be careful to select highly qualified engineers of good conduct for these appointments.

11. The engineeers engaged by Messrs. Pauling & Company Limited must reach Kueilin within three months from the date of signature of the agreement. If they fail to arrive within the time limit, this agreement will become null and void and the first instalment of £500 will be repayable to the Provincial Authorities.

12. This agreement will be signed in duplicate, one copy being kept by each party.

Taotai Wei Han, Director of the Canton-Kowloon Railway will sign on behalf of the Governor of Kwangsi and Oswald Christian Ormsby on behalf of the firm of Messrs. Pauling & Company Limited.

(Signed)

H. WEI, on behalf of the Governor of Kwangsi.

O. C. ORMSBY, on behalf of Pauling & Co., Ltd.

Signatures certified to by H. H. Fox, H. B. M. Consul General.

19-5-'09.

NUMBER 1909/4.

GREAT BRITAIN (Hongkong) AND CHINA.

Arrangement regulating the exchange of postal parcels.*-June 5 and 22, 1909. THE exchange of postal parcels between the Administration of Posts of Hongkong and the Administration of Customs and Posts of China, provided for *The terms of this arrangement would appear to have been modified by the fact of the Chinese Government's adherence, from September 1, 1914, to the parcels post convention concluded at Rome, May 26, 1906 (No. 1906/3, ante).

in Article VIII of the Postal Arrangement concluded on the 12th December 1904 between the two above-mentioned Administrations,† shall be regulated according to the conditions hereunder stated.

ARTICLE I-WEIGHT OF PARCELS.-The maximum weight of a parcel, whether of declared value or not, shall not exceed five kilogrammes (eleven pounds).

However, there shall be an exception made for parcels destined for Offices of the Administration of Customs and Posts of China that are not connected by railway or by steamer, in which case the limit shall be three kilogrammes (six pounds); but this limit may at any time hereafter be raised by mutual agreement between the two Administrations.

ARTICLE II.-DIMENSIONS OF PARCELS.-The postal parcels to which this Convention is for the present to apply shall be those of which no dimension shall exceed sixty centimetres (two feet) in any one direction and of which the volume shall not exceed twenty-five cubic decimetres (one cubic foot).

Parcels, however, containing umbrellas, walking-sticks, charts, plans, and such-like articles shall be accepted if they do not exceed one metre (three feet three inches) long and twenty centimetres broad or thick:

The limits of weight, dimensions, and volume herein determined may be increased by mutual agreement.

ARTICLE III.-EXCHANGE OF PARCELS.-The exchange of postal parcels shall take place through the intermediary of the British Offices established in China and the Chinese Offices established in the same localities as these British Offices; and where there are no British Offices between the British and Chinese Post Offices at Shanghai for postal parcels to or from river and coast ports north of Shanghai; but for postal parcels to or from southern ports, direct between the Offices of China and Hongkong.

ARTICLE IV-TRANSMISSION of Parcels.-1.-The Hongkong Administration shall be intermediary (by means of the services it may maintain) for the exchange of parcels between China on the one part and the United Kingdom, British possessions, and foreign countries on the other.

2. The Administration of Customs and Posts of China engages on its part to assure the transmission by its services of all parcels that shall be handed to it by the Hongkong Administration.

ARTICLE V-TARIFFS AND POSTAGE.-Each Administration shall itself determine the taxes and duties to be collected on postal parcels forwarded by its own Offices.

The prepayment of postage on postal parcels shall be obligatory before departure. However, the fee for delivery shall be payable by the addressee.

Moreover, parcels destined for places in China not connected by railway or by steamer may be further charged for transmission beyond railway or steamer services, at the expense of the addressee, supplementary taxes the amount of which shall be determined by the Administration of Customs and Posts of China.

For the text of this arrangement, see note concerning the Rome conventions of May 26, 1906 (No. 1906/3, ante).

It is understood that the Hongkong Administration shall not tax parcels exchanged between its Offices in China at rates lower than those charged by the Chinese Administration of Posts.

ARTICLE VI.-TRANSIT CHARGES.-1.-The Administration of Customs and Posts of China shall pay to the Administration of Posts of Hongkong the following charges:

For each parcel destined for Hongkong or any of its Agencies in China, an inland postage of fr. 0.25.

For parcels destined for the United Kingdom, British possessions, and foreign countries, the charges indicated in Table A drawn up by the Administration of Posts of Hongkong.

For each closed box containing parcels exchanged between two Chinese Post Offices through the intermediary of Hongkong, a transshipment charge of $1 Mex.

2. The Administration of Posts of Hongkong shall pay to the Administration of Customs and Posts of China the following charges:

(a.) For each parcel handed to the Chinese Administration, fr. 0.25.
(b.) For each parcel necessitating maritime or territorial transit within
the limits of steam communications, an additional charge of
fr. 0.50.

(c.) For parcels destined for places outside of China, the additional
charges indicated in Table A drawn up by the Administration
of Customs and Posts of China.

N.B.-Each parcel destined for a place beyond the limits of steam communication (i.e., not over three kilogrammes weight) will pay at destination the Chinese domestic tariff.

ARTICLE VII.-PARCELS OF DECLARED VALUE.-Besides the transit charges, the Administration of origin shall pay, in respect of insurance fees on parcels of declared value, to the other Administration, and, if need be, to each Administration participating in the transmission when such Administration is under guarantee of responsibility, a proportional part of the determined insurance fees, viz.: for 300 francs or fraction of 300 francs, fr. 0.05 for territorial transit, and fr. 0.10 for maritime transit.

ARTICLE VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RECEIPT.-The sender of a postal parcel may obtain an acknowledgement of receipt of his parcel by paying a fee that shall not exceed fr. 0.25.

The same fee may be charged when, subsequent to posting, inquiries are made about a parcel, provided the special fee for an acknowledgment of receipt has not been paid already.

This charge shall accrue entirely to the Administration of origin.

ARTICLE IX.-DELIVERY AND CUSTOMS FORMALITIES.-It shall be allowable for the country of destination to collect from the addressee a fee that shall not exceed fr. 0.25 per parcel for delivery and Customs formalities.

ARTICLE X.-ANNULMENT OF CUSTOMS DUTIES.-In the case of the retransmission or of the return of a parcel to the Office of origin, the Customs duties that have been paid on the parcel in the country of first destination shall be annulled.