Volume I Part 64 (1/2)

[Sidenote: International Telegraph Offices.]

-- 464. In 1868 the international telegraph office of the International Telegraph Union was created at Berne. It is administered by four functionaries under the supervision of the Swiss Bundesrath. It edits the _Journal Telegraphique_ in French.[813] Connected with this office is, since 1906, the International Office for Radiotelegraphy.[814]

[Footnote 813: See below, -- 582, No. 2.]

[Footnote 814: See below, -- 582, No. 4.]

[Sidenote: International Post Office.]

-- 465. The pendant of the international telegraph office is the international post office of the Universal Postal Union created at Berne in 1874. It is administered by seven functionaries under the supervision of the Swiss Bundesrath, and edits a monthly, _L'Union Postale_, in French, German, and English.[815]

[Footnote 815: See below, -- 582, No. 1.]

[Sidenote: International Office of Weights and Measures.]

-- 466. The States which have introduced the metric system of weights and measures created in 1875 the international office of weights and measures in Paris. Of functionaries there are a director and several a.s.sistants. Their task is the custody of the international prototypes of the metre and kilogramme and the comparison of the national prototypes with the international.[816]

[Footnote 816: See below, -- 588, No. 1.]

[Sidenote: International Office for the Protection of Works of Literature and Art and of Industrial Property.]

-- 467. In 1883 an International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, and in 1886 an International Union for the Protection of Works of Literature and Art, were created, with an international office in Berne. There are a secretary-general and three a.s.sistants, who edit a monthly, _Le Droit d'Auteur_, in French.[817]

[Footnote 817: See below, ---- 584 and 585, No. 2.]

[Sidenote: The Pan-American Union.]

-- 467_a_. The first Pan-American Conference of 1889 created ”The American International Bureau,” which, since the fourth Conference of 1910, bears the name ”The Pan-American Union.” There are a director, an a.s.sistant director, and several secretaries. This office[818] publishes a ”Monthly Bulletin.”

[Footnote 818: See below, -- 595.]

[Sidenote: Maritime Office at Zanzibar, and Bureau Special at Brussels.]

-- 468. In accordance with the General Act of the Anti-Slavery Conference of Brussels, 1890, the International Maritime Office at Zanzibar and the ”Bureau Special” at Brussels were established; the latter is attached to the Belgian Foreign Office at Brussels.[819]

[Footnote 819: See below, -- 592, No. 1.]

[Sidenote: International Office of Customs Tariffs.]

-- 469. The International Union for the Publication of Customs Tariffs, concluded in 1890, has created an international office[820] at Brussels.

There are a director, a secretary, and ten translators. The office edits the _Bulletin des Douanes_ in French, German, English, Italian, and Spanish.

[Footnote 820: See below, -- 585, No. 1.]

[Sidenote: Central Office of International Transports.]

-- 470. Nine States--namely, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Luxemburg, Russia, Switzerland--entered in 1890 into an international convention in regard to transports and freights on railways and have created the ”Office Central des Transports[821]

Internationaux” at Berne.