The International Postal Service

The Postal Union Organization.

The organization of the union is simple, but effective. Most questions are naturally settled directly between the countries immediately concerned; but for matters in which the whole union is concerned a central office or international bureau is maintained at Berne. The bureau collects and distributes information of common interest, publishes statisti cal returns, a monthly journal, lists of steamship and air services, etc., and acts if required as a clearing house for the settlement of accounts. The cost of the bureau is apportioned in a ratio cor responding to their importance between the various members of the union ; the annual cost in the case of an office paying the maxi mum quota is some £350 a year; whilst a small state pays the modest subscription of about £15.

The Postal Convention and the subordinate agreements are re viewed periodically, usually at intervals of five or six years, by a congress to which every' member is invited to send delegates. Each country submits in advance any proposals which it may have to offer on any article in the agreements, and these are debated first by a special committee and afterwards by the whole con gress in plenary session, all questions being decided by a simple majority. The voting system gives every metropolitan country one vote irrespective of its size or importance. The British domin ions and India are considered as metropolitan countries; but votes are only allotted to colonies and dependencies by special vote of the congress, the number being subject to revision on each occa sion. In cases of dispute between postal administrations the union has adopted the principle of compulsory arbitration. Serious dis putes are infrequent, but when they occur the arbitration machi nery has invariably been effective.

The principles adopted by the first congress in 1874, which for the first time introduced order and uniformity into the interna tional service, were simple and well conceived.

Four Chief Principles.

The first was the uniformity of postage rates and of units of weight. The congress of Berne adopted the rate of 25 centimes per 15 grammes for letters, but permitted a certain variation within a definite maximum and minimum, and the rate of 7 centimes, with a similar variation, per 50 grammes of printed papers. In 1878, however, standard uni form rates of 25 centimes for a letter, io centimes for a postcard, and 5 centimes per 5o grammes for printed papers, were adopted and were retained unaltered until 192o. The only variation al lowed was the addition of a surtax in cases where heavy costs for sea transport were incurred. The conditions which followed the

war swept away the uniformity which had prevailed for 4o years and brought about a reversion to the original principle of a maxi mum and a minimum rate. At the most recent congress (1924) the old rates were reaffirmed, and the limits of variation reduced— a process which will no doubt continue until the old stability and uniformity are re-established. The only change in the units of weight has been the raising of the letter unit from 15 to 20 grammes, or to an ounce for English speaking countries.

The second basic principle is the classification of postal cor respondence into three groups—letters, postcards, and printed papers (including commercial papers and samples). Definite con ditions of acceptance, as well as separate rates of postage, were adopted; the delicate distinctions between what can be sent at the cheap rate and what must be charged as a letter, which are often puzzling to the public, depend on international decisions which no individual country is in a position to vary.

The third principle was the adoption of definite payments to be made by the country which despatches mails by the trains or steamships of another country for the use of those services, with the exception that no payment is made to the country of destina tion, the flow of correspondence in each direction being assumed to be approximately equal. Here there has been no continuity of practice. Rates for sea services in particular were at the outset extremely high ; in some cases as much as 25 francs a kilogramme (representing about 21d. a letter) was charged. The gradual cheapening of the cost of sea transport has been reflected at suc cessive Congresses in the reduction of the scale of sea rates, while a similar though smaller reduction has been made in land rates; at the present an equitable scale is in force which varies in accord ance with fixed zones of distance, and represents the lowest point which transit rates have reached in the history of the foreign post.

The fourth principle was the universal adoption of a system of registration and compensation. International registration differs from internal registration in one important particular, which often puzzles and annoys the sender of a letter. The compensation pay able is a fixed amount (5o francs or £2) and is allowed only in the event of the entire loss of the registered packet and not for damage or loss of contents. This principle the union has steadily maintained from its inception.