UPU Administrative Conference on Air Mail, The Hague
Apart from the ordinary or extraordinary
Congresses, the UPU Constitution used to provide for Administrative Conferences
for the consideration of purely technical questions.
Before the 1984 Hamburg Congress decided
to do away with the possibilities of holding Administrative Conferences, the
Union had availed itself of this possibility only three times, namely:
1.
at Berne in 1876 (17-27 January), on the question of
the admission of British India and the Whole of the French Colonies as members
of the UPU, and to establish maritime transit charges affecting distances
greater than from Europe to the United States of America and Egypt;
2.
in Paris in 1880 (9 October-3 November),
to conclude a Special Convention specially concerning the exchange of postal
parcels; the delegates to this Conference had, however, plenipotentiary powers;
3.
at The Hague in 1927 (1-10 September), to
lay down provisions in respect of air mail.
One
of the provisions agreed upon was that the "par avion" labels should
have a blue colour
and when the mail did not actually travel by air, such labels or
annotations should be crossed out.
During the conference a special post mark was used to
commemorate this occasion and in the Netherlands two privately produced post
cards were issued to the participants.
The Air Mail Regulations that were established by this
Conference were adopted by the UPU London Congress in 1929.
It should be noted that some sources name special
Conferences at Zermatt (1921) and Nice (1922). No further information is
available at this moment.
Stamp catalogue
Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics 1
September 1927