Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-27
HANDLING FOREIGN MAIL.
Regulations Adopted by Treasury and
Post Office Departments.

The Secretary of the Treasury and the
Postmaster General have adopted Joint reg
ulations governing the handling and dis
position of foreign mail matter believed
to contain dutiable articles, which are de-
signed to better safeguard the revenue and
to expedite the delivery of such importa-
tons. They differ from former regula-
tons mainly in that, first, collectors and
surveyors of customs are to detail COM
petent subordinates for duty at exchange
post offices of receipt whenever necessary
to properly safeguard the revenue and ex-
pedite the delivery of foreign mails: second
postmasters at exchange Offices of receipt
are to provide proper facilities for the treat
ment of foreign mail packages by customs
officers, and are to keep such officers adj
vised of the prospective arrival Of each mail
from abroad; third, customs officers detailed
at exchange offices of receipt are to seq
regate and stamp or label, as they arrive
sealed and unsealed, registered and unreg-
istered packages Except letters which will
be stamped or labeled by postal employes)
which may contain dutiable articles from
those clearly non-dutiable, thus reliev-
ing postal employees of the responsibility
o %bet determining scg in the first instance
liable to duty; fourth letters and sealed
packages supposed to contain dutiable arti-
cles for delivery at post offices remote from
cuStCIHS Offices are, dIteT DelnS opened by
addresses, to be promptly forwarded to
the postmaster at places where the nearest
customs officers are located for submis-
sion to such officers to determine whether
the contents are In fact dutiable thus
eliminating unnecessary correspondence be-
tween postmasters and customs officers and
reducing to a minimum the time required
for the delivery of such packages; fifth, I'M
sealed registered packages are to be ex-
amined and the duty rated by customs off,
GERS detailed at exchange offices of receipt
posed liable to customs duty and the de-
lay incident thereto, when such packages
are for delivery at offices other than ex-
change offices of receipt sixth, labels bear
ing serial numbers and the legend SUP
posed liable to customs duty" are to be
affixed to letters and sealed packages for
delivery outside of the exchange post Of
fees at which the articles arrive, SO that
they may be readily traced; seventh, I'M
deliverable dutiable letters and packages,
which are not returned to countries or
officers for disposition under the customs
laws and regulations; eighth, smuggled
letters and packages placed in the mails
are to be delivered to customs officers I'M
der certain conditions; ninth, newspapers
are to be examined for dutiable articles at
irregular intervals; tenth, letters and pack
ages addressed to government officials bear
ing the appearance of containing merchan-
disc Of any character are to be submitted to
customs officers for examination; eleventh,
duty and not a fine Is to be assessed on
printed matter, Including books; and
twelfth, postal and customs employees are
to be held responsible for careless or i'm
proper repacking after a package has been
opened for inspection and rating of duty