Parcel Post Agreement Between the U.S. and the Gold Coast Colony

XIII. REDIRECTION
1. Any parcel redirected within the country of destination or delivered to an alternate addressee at the original office of address shall be liable to such additional charges as may be prescribed by the Administration of that country.

2. When a parcel is redirected to either country, new postage may, if not prepaid, be collected upon delivery and retained by the Administration making the collection. The Administration making delivery shall fix the amount of such postage when not prepaid.

XIV. POSTAL CHARGES OTHER THAN THOSE PRESCRIBED NOT TO BE COLLECTED
1. The parcels to which this Agreement applies shall not be subjected to any postal charges other than those contemplated by the different articles hereof.

2. Each Administration shall retain to its own use the whole of the postage and fees and other charges which it collects under the provisions of this Agreement.

XV. RECALL AND CHANGE OF ADDRESS
So long as a parcel has not been delivered to the addressee, the sender may recall it or cause its address to be altered. The requests for return or change of address which must conform to the rules laid down by the domestic regulations of the contracting Administrations, are to be addressed to the central Administrations or to such post offices as may be mutually agreed upon by correspondence.

XVI. NONDELIVERY
1. In the absence of a request by the sender to the contrary, a parcel which can not be delivered shall be returned to the sender without previous notification. New postage may be collected from the sender and retained by the Administration making the collection.

2. The sender of a parcel may request, at the time of mailing that, if the parcel can not be delivered as addressed, it shall be either (a) treated as abandoned, or (b) tendered for delivery at a second address in the country of destination. No other alternative is admissible. If the sender avails himself of this facility, his request must appear on the parcel or on a Dispatch Note or Customs Declaration attached to or stuck on the parcel and must be in conformity with or analogous to one of the following forms:

“If not deliverable as addressed … “Abandon”
“If not deliverable as addressed … “Deliver to … ”

3. Except as otherwise provided, undeliverable parcels will he returned to the senders at the expiration of thirty days from the date of receipt at the post office of destination in the United States of America and at the expiration of twenty-one days from the date of receipt at the post office of destination in the Gold Coast Colony, while refused parcels will be returned at once, the parcels in each case to be marked to show the reason for nondelivery.

4. Articles liable to deterioration or corruption, and these only, may, however, be sold immediately even on the outward or return journey, without previous notice or judicial formality for the benefit of the right party.

If for any reason a sale is impossible, the spoilt or worthless articles shall be destroyed. The sale or destruction shall be recorded and report made to the Administration of origin.

5. Undeliverable parcels which the sender has marked “Abandon” may be sold at auction at the expiration of thirty days in the United States of America, and at the expiration of twenty-one days in the Gold Coast Colony.

XVII. CUSTOMS CHARGES TO BE CANCELLED
Provided the formalities prescribed by the Customs authorities concerned are fulfilled, the customs charges, properly so-called, on parcels destroyed, abandoned by the sender, sent back to the country of origin, or redirected to another country shall be cancelled both in the Gold Coast Colony and in the United States of America.

XVIII. RETRANSMISSION
Missent parcels shall be forwarded to their destinations by the most direct route at the disposal of the reforwarding Administration but must not be marked with the customs or other charges by the reforwarding Administration.

XIX. RECEPTACLES
Each Administration shall provide the bags necessary for the dispatch of its parcels. The bags shall be returned empty to the country of origin by the next Mail. Empty bags shall be made up in bundles of ten (nine bags enclosed in one) and the total number of such bags shall be advised on the parcel bill.

XX. CHARGES
1. The amounts to be allowed in respect to parcels sent from one Administration to the other for onward transmission to a possession of either country or to a third country shall be fixed by the intermediate Administration.

2. In the case of a parcel returned or redirected in transit through one of the two Administrations to the other, the intermediate Administration may claim also the sum due to it for any additional territorial or sea service provided, together with any amounts due to any other Administration or Administrations concerned.

3. For every parcel mailed in one country and addressed for delivery in the other which weighs not exceeding 3 pounds a payment of 1 shilling (24 cents) shall be made by the dispatching Administration to the receiving Administration, for every parcel which weighs over 3 pounds and not over 7 pounds a payment of 1 shilling 6 pence (36 cents) shall be made, for every parcel which weighs over 7 pounds and not over 11 pounds a payment of 2 shillings (48 cents) shall be made and for every parcel which weighs over 11 pounds and not over 22 pounds a payment of 3 shillings (72 cents) shall be made.

XXI. ACCOUNTING
1. Terminal parcels. At the end of each quarter the country shall prepare an account of the amount due to it in respect to the parcels received in excess of those dispatched.

2. Transit parcels. Each Administration shall also prepare. quarterly an account showing the sums due for parcels sent by the other Administration for onward transmission.

3. These accounts shall be submitted to the examination of the corresponding Administration in the course of the month which follows the quarter to which they relate.

4. The compilation transmission, verification and acceptance of the accounts must be effected as early as possible and the payment resulting from the balance must be made at the latest before the end of the following quarter.

5. Payment of the balances due on these accounts between the two Administrations shall be effected by means of drafts on New York or in any other manner which may be agreed upon mutually by correspondence between the two Administrations, the expense attendant on the payment being at the charge of the indebted Administration.

XXII. MATTERS NOT PROVIDED FOR IN THE AGREEMENT
1. The Postmaster General of the United States of America and the Postmaster General of the Gold Coast Colony shall have authority jointly to make from time to time by correspondence such changes and modifications and further regulations of order and detail as may become necessary to facilitate the operation of the services contemplated by this Agreement as well as to provide arrangements for the registration and insurance of parcel post packages and for the exchange of parcels subject to collect-on-delivery charges should both countries at any time desire any one or all of these services.

2. The Administration shall communicate to each other from time to time the provisions of their laws or regulations applicable to the conveyance of parcels by Parcel Post.

XXIII. DURATION OF AGREEMENT
1. This Agreement shall take effect and operations thereunder shall begin on a date to be mutually settled between the Administrations of the two countries.

2. It shall remain in force until one of the two contracting Administrations has given notice to the other, six months in advance, of its intention to terminate it.

3. Done in duplicate and signed at Accra the 6th day of March 1929 and at Washington the 2d day of April 1929.