POSTAL CONGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 149, 28 June 1929, Page 9

POSTAL CONGRESS

WELCOME TO LONDON

THE PRINCE'S SPEECH

NEW STAMP ISSUE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 18th May. The Prince of Wales welcomed the 200. delegates from eighty countries, who have come to London to attend the "World Postal Conference. Mr. George M'Namara (Secretary of the; Telegraph and Postal Department, Wellington) is representing Now Zealand. The opening ceremony was held in the Eoyal Galleries of the House of Lords, and took place in the presence of the Diplomatic Corps. The PostmasterGeneral spoke first. The Prince of Wales, who spoke in French, which is the-^Jtnguage that will be used throughout the conference, expressed his ; great pleasure at welcoming to London delegates to the ninth Congress of the Universal Postal Union. "I am deply touched, "he said, "by the sentiments expressed by the Post-master-General in the name of all the delegates and of his hopes for the restoration to health of His Majesty the King. The universal sympathy which has been shown to him during his illness has been a source of comfort not only for His Majesty but for all the members of his family, and we cannot sufficiently express our gratitude. The last congress, which was held at Stockholm five years ago, celebrated the jubilee of the Postal Union. TKe congress which opens to-day marks a new and most important stage. Your meeting now, recognises that that universality which it has made its ideal for more than 50 years is completely realised. "The Postal Union has the right to be proud of its past and of the continuous progress which it has realised. In the maintenance of postal communication its aim is universal co-operation for the well-being of humanity, and there is no country in the world which cannot be grateful to it for the benefits which the union has conferred upon it. Not only is the work of .the Postal Union essential to the development of external communications and trade in general, but it renders possible that direct personal intercourse on which international understanding so closely depends and which, indeed, cannot continue without it. IMPROVING TRANSPORT. "Before the formation of the Postal Union, correspondence with a foreign country was a luxury. It is now within^ reach of the poorest. It is effected with a constantly increasing rapidity, thanks to the employment of the constant improvements in methods of transport by land, by sea, and, in recent years, also by air. This is the first time since its foundation 55 years ago that the Congress of the Postal Union has met in London. This event gives me the greatest pleasure. lam convinced that its labours wilj be crowned with ■ success, and that the great work begun half a century ago will be carried on with undiminished zeal and efficiency. lam sure that the present congress will mark an epoch in the history of the union. I hope that your stay in England will be a pleasant one, that your strenuous labours will not prevent you from finding some time to admire the beauties Of the country, and that when ( you return to your, homes ia (every part of the world you will retain a pleasant recollection of England and its capital." The congress is sitting-in the Civil Service Commission Building in Burlington Gardens. GOVERNMENT DINNER. A Government dinner to the delegates attending the Universal Postal Union Congress was held at the Hotel Cecil. Sir William Mitchell-Thomson, the Postmaster-General, presided. > Proposing the toast, "Success to the Universal Postal Union Congress, 1029," the chairman said that the Prime Minister himself wonld have been there that«night to welcome them but for the General Election. The Postal Union was a most remarkable gathering—no other body could even begin to compete with' its universal internationalism. (The Post was world-wide and its activities permeated every part of the globe. To those wh6 were responsible for the working of the machinery which'rendered possible so complete a. system of communication this was perhaps almost a commonplace. The outsider equally never Stopped to think what made the wheels go round. Both, of those views seemed to him to ao less than justice to a great service, and they could not be charged ■with undue- self-satisfaction if they felt a certain pride when, on such an occasion as this, they were obliged to contemplate the inner working of that vast machine for which they were repponsible. One of the really important advantages of a meeting of this character Was that it brought together the heads of the Postal Service in every country. After such a meeting correspondence tvas no longer a matter of dealing with Borne invisible and unknown personality hundreds of-miles away. It had pcen. transformed by the invaluable tacp)T of personal intercourse. Concluding, he extended to the delefeates a warm welcome from the Government and particularly the Post pffiee. M. Hubert Krains (Belgium), speaking in French, expressed the pleasure of the delegates at being received at the Palace of Westminster by the Prince Of Wales and their gratification at geing honoured by the British Governprent that evening. NEW STAMP ISSUE. A new issue of stamps is on issue to Commemorate the congress. There has been a steady demand for the four Cheaper varieties—}d, Id, l^d, and 2Jd —not only for normal use but for the Collections of philatelists. Enthusiast^ collectors bought the £1 'stamp, Jvhich completes the set. The King on the firat day of the issue received a letter on which were the four aew low- value stamps. This was one Of the many envelopes, addressed and stamped with all four stamps at the office of the Royal Philatelic Society. The King has one of the finest collections of British Empire stamps in the world, and the letter will give him the new stamps which, by going through the post, will have printed on them the date of issue. He will also receive a complete unused set of the new issue. To ensure the inclusion in collections of specimens of the stamps bearing the postmark of the first day of issue many philatelists posted to themselves, or to their friends, empty envelopes bearing the four new issues, costing sid for cancellation. The "London Philatelist," the journal of the Eoyal Philatelic Society, states: "It is clear, in the absence o£ the re-issue of the one pound value in the regular set, that the sole purpose of again issuing this value is aa a means of collecting from the philatelic public an unnecessary and enforced subscription, sufficient, we should think, to pay for the whole issue and then leave a balance. The object of any commemorative issue should be to commemorate and not to extort. Wo have no real objection to commemorative issues if are devoid if speculative taint, yalid for postal purposes, of the same fecial value as the regular postal issues, pad limited, to loss; yztlves only, Bnt