62 STAT.] MULTILATERAL-UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION-JULY 5, 1947 ARTICLE 25. Effective date of decisions. No addition or modification adopted is effective until at least three months after its notification. CHAPTER IV. International Bureau. ARTICLE 26. Generalfunctions. 1. A central Office, operating at Berne under the name of Inter- national Bureau of the Universal Postal Union, and placed under the supervision of the Swiss Postal Administration, serves as an organ of liaison, information and consultation for the countries of the Union. 2. That Bureau is charged, in particular, with assembling, co- ordinating, publishing and distributing information of all kinds concerning the international postal service; with giving, at the request of the interested parties, an opinion on questions in dispute; with examining requests for modification of the Acts of the Congress; with giving notice of the changes adopted; and, in general, with undertaking such studies and work of editing and of documentation as the Convention, the Agreements and their Regulations may assign to it, or which may be entrusted to it in the interests of the Union. 3. It acts as a clearing-house for the settlement of accounts of all kinds relative to the international postal service, between Administra- tions requesting such intervention. Settlement of postal accounts. ARTICLE 27. Expenses of the InternationalBureau. 1. Each Congress fixes the maximum figure for the ordinary annual expenses of the International Bureau. Those expenses, as well as the extraordinary expenses arising from the meeting of a Congress, a Conference or a Committee, and the expenses resulting from special work entrusted to that Bureau, are shared by all the countries of the Union. 2. The latter are divided, for that purpose, into 7 classes, each of tribpuotionate con- which contributes to the payment of the expenses in the following proportion: 1st class, 25 units 2d"20 3d"15 4th"10 5th"5 6th"3 7th " 1unit 3. In case of a new adhesion, the Government of the Swiss Con- Newadherencn. federation determines, by mutual agreement with the government of the country concerned, the class in which the latter is to be placed for the apportionment of the expenses of the International Bureau. 3317
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