Suchergebnisse

On May 6, 1947, the Universal Postal Union convened in Paris to consider an agenda of some 700 items, among which was the question of affiliation of the Union with the United Nations as a specialized agency.1 The General Commission, having decided in favor of affiliation, the President of the Congress (Le Mouel), on May 29, notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations that a draft agreement intended to establish this relationship between the two organizations had been adopted on the previous day. Subject to several amendments in form and substance, the draft approved in Paris followed closely the report and proposed draft adopted at the Meeting of Postal Experts at Lake Success in December 1946. In communicating the adoption of the draft agreement, the President of the Universal Postal Congress requested that negotiations with the United Nations be undertaken before the recess of the Congress on June 22, and arrangements accordingly were completed for a meeting between the ECOSOC Committee on Negotiations with Specialized Agencies and representatives of the Universal Postal Union in Paris on June 17.

The Management Council of the Consultative Committee for Postal Studies of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) held its annual session in Tokyo on October 2–22, 1961. In view of the proximity of the fifteenth Universal Postal Congress, which was to meet in 1963, the Council decided not to meet in 1962. The 1961 plenary meetings of the Council were preceded by meetings of 24 working groups, which discussed the technical, business, and economic problems of post office management.

The Universal Postal Union, the most widespread of international associations, is composed of all nations of the world. Established by international convention, it was first set up in 1874 by representatives of national postal administrations. Details of the Union are worked out in a series of "arrangements" and "règlements"; members of the organization propose amendments to the documents mentioned and discussion then takes place in the Congress.

The International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was notified in Demember 1962 that, due to the Chinese invasion and the consequent national emergency, India could not host the fifteenth Universal Postal Congress which had been scheduled to open on March 1, 1963, in New Delhi. On January 17, 1963, the Director of the International Bureau, Mr. Weber, received from the Austrian government an official invitation to hold the fifteenth Congress in Vienna in June 1964.

The fourteenth Congress of the Universal Postal Union was held from August 14 to October 3, 1957, in Ottawa, Canada, under the chairmanship of Mr. W. J. Turnbull (Canada). Work on over 1200 proposals which were submitted to the Congress was distributed among nine committees.

In June 1949 the Universal Postal Union reported the results of the third Conference of the African Postal and Telecommunications Union, held in Capetown from November 12 to 27, 1948. The eighteen members of the union — with the French Cameroons, French Equatorial Africa and Madagascar represented for the first time — met to consider the advisability of revising the African Postal Union Agreement of 1939 but concluded that no amendments were necessary. The agreement was, however, supplemented by working arrangements defining in detail the regulations for the various categories of postal services. The fourth meeting of the Conference was scheduled to meet in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, in July 1953.

The twelfth Congress of the Universal Postal Union, which was held in Paris from May 6 to July 5,1947, was the first post-war meeting of the Congress, and in consequence was faced with questions of administrative and procedural as well as substantive character. An agenda of some 700 items was considered by delegates by 76 countries, and a number of changes in the basic framework of the Union were made.

The Executive and Liaison Committee of the Universal Postal Union held its sixth meeting in Berne, Switzerland, January 21 to 28, 1952. The Committee made recommendations to the forthcoming Congress on such questions as revision of the Paris Acts concerning parcel post, harmonizing the Acts of UPU and the Geneva Conventions in matters of freedom of postage to war victims and air mail.

The Universal Postal Union, which has operated since 1874 through periodic Congresses (every five years) and the International Bureau, has recently continued work interrupted by the war. The Congress of the Union, convening May 6 in Paris, at the call of the French government, was to consider over 500 proposals which had been submitted by member countries, asking for changes in many phases of the international postal provisions of the Buenos Aires Convention (1939), and subsidiary agreements. Matters pending consideration included the question of establishing some relationship between the Union and the United Nations, and the possible creation of an Administrative Council designed to make important decisions, in cooperation with the International Bureau, during intervals between Congresses.

The annual report of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union for 1947, made public in April 1948, showed that the resumption of postal relations had continued so that with few exceptions international postaFservice could be considered as reestablished in all the countries of the Union. It was estimated that the total figures of area and population which was currently being served were roughly the same as before the war: 131.7 million square kilometers and 2,079 million inhabitants. The Bureau, which had established direct mail connections with all the Administrations of the Union, also published a listing of postage stamps of all sorts. A new edition of the List of Addresses of Postal Administrations was produced and the Directory of Postal Offices begun in 1945 was continued. No communications concerning past or present disputes under Article 11 of the convention had been received. The total expenditures of the International Bureau for 1947, less receipts, were 701,932.35 Swiss francs.

The thirteenth Congress of the Universal Postal Union was held at the Palais des Academies in Brussels from May 14 to July 15, 1952, with representatives from 91 countries present. The Congress, which met to revise the convention and its executive regulations concluded at Paris in 1947 as well as facultative agreements and their executive regulations also concluded in Paris, had before it more than 1,700 proposals for amending the Paris Acts. After electing E. Pineux (Belgium) President and F. Hess (Switzerland) Vice-President, the Congress established eight committees.

The United Kingdom, which as the Mandatory Power in Palestine was also responsible for Palestinian relations with the Universal Postal Union, informed the United Nations Palestine Commission in March 1948 that it could not assume responsibility for mail reaching Palestine after certain specified dates: March 15 for parcel mail, April 15 for letter mail sent by surface routes, April 15 for parcel mail sent to Palestine in transit to countries beyond, and February 29 for money order service. The Commission relayed this information to the International Bureau of the Union, which stated that the Palestine Commission or any agent it chose to appoint during the transitional period prior to the establishment of independent states might enter into relationship with the Union. The Commission instructed its advance party in Jerusalem to determine the best method for establishing emergency postal arrangements.

In accordance with the agreement between the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union, UPU submitted a report on its activities for 1950. At the end of 1950, it was reported, the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies had been applied to the UPU by eight governments: Austria, Denmark, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Preparations for the thirteenth Universal Postal Congress, to be held in Brussels in 1952, had been started in the period under review. Member governments were reminded that, according to the regulations of the organization, settlement of transit charges was to be carried out, as a rule, through the general clearing account of UPU and not through separate direct settlement. It was noted, however, that 95 administrations had settled their account through the general clearing account in 1949, 28 more than in the previous year.

The Executive and Liaison Committee of the Universal Postal Union, established by the Congress of Paris of 1947, held its fourth session at Montreux, Switzerland, May 15 to 26, 1950 under the presidency of J. J. Le Mouel, Director-General of French Posts. The first question dealt with by the committee concerned the representation of China; taking into consideration the technical character of UPU and the actual situation in China the committee recognized the representative of the People's Republic of China as the rightful delegate. The committee spent much of its time in discussion of air mail problems and it was decided to call a joint IATA/UPU conference in January 1951 for the purpose of attaining solutions to the problems. The recommendation of the delegate from Czechoslovakia that those governments whose air mail rates exceeded the rates fixed by the Paris Convention be pressed to reduce them, was adopted. A subcommittee consisting of France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and the United Kingdom was appointed to consider a revision of the form and substance of the acts of Paris concerning the international exchange of parcels. The report of the subcommittee entrusted with the work of rearranging and revising the acts of the Universal Postal Union was heard and adopted by the committee; the proposals would be placed before the Congress of 1952 for its approval. The committee scheduled its fifth session for May 21 to June 2, 1951 at St-Gall, Switzerland.