When these articles are being transported as baggage or as a result of a change of residence (household goods), they shall not be prohibited and are subject to the provisions of Article 19.
Packages left by soldiers and sailors and returned to their country after death are treated the same as the articles comprised in the first paragraph of No. 1.
2. Rags (including those for making paper), with the exception, as to cholera, of compressed rags transported as wholesale merchandise in hooped bales.
Fresh waste coming directly from spinning mills, weaving mills, manufactories, or bleacheries; artificial wools (shoddy), and fresh paper trimmings shall not be forbidden.
Art. 13. The transit of the merchandise and articles specified under Nos. 1 and 2 of the preceding article shall not be prohibited if they are so packed that they can not be manipulated en route.
Likewise, when the merchandise or articles are transported in such a manner that it is impossible for them to have been in contact with contaminated articles en route, their transit across an infected territorial area shall not constitute an obstacle to their entry into the country of destination.
Art. 14. The merchandise and articles specified under Nos. 1 and 2 of Article 12 shall not be subject to the application of the measures prohibiting entry if it is proven to the authorities of the country of destination that they were shipped at least five days before the beginning of the epidemic.
Art. 15. The mode and place of disinfection, as well as the methods to be employed for the destruction of rats, shall be determined by the authorities of the country of destination. These operations should be performed in such a manner as to cause the least possible injury to the articles.
It shall devolve upon each Nation to determine the question as to the possible payment of damages as a result of disinfection or of the destruction of rats.
If, on the occasion of the taking of measures for the destruction of rats on board vessels, the health authorities should levy a tax either directly or through a society or private individual, the rate of such tax must be fixed by a tariff published in advance and so calculated that no profit shall be derived by the Nation or the Health Department from its application as a whole.
Art. 16. Letters and correspondence, printed matter, books, newspapers, business papers, etc. (parcels post not included) shall not be subjected to any restriction or disinfection.
Art. 17. Merchandise, arriving by land or by sea, shall not be detained at frontiers or in ports.
The only measures which it is permissible to prescribe with regard to them are specified in Article 12 hereinabove.
However, if merchandise arriving by sea in bulk or in defective bales has
