Universal Postal Union

The Executive and Liaison Committee of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) held its annual session at Lugano, Switzerland from May 2 to 13, 1955, under the chairmanship of Mr. Lemmens, Director General of Posts of Belgium; the session was attended by representatives of nineteen countries and by observers from several interested international organizations. Among the proposals submitted by the Committee to the Ottawa Congress to be held in 1957 was a draft article outlining the procedure to be followed for the presentation of draft and substantive proposals to future sessions of the Congress by administrations of member countries of UPU. If accepted by the Ottawa Congress, the article would supplement and amend the provisions of the UPU Convention and its Detailed Regulations. After considering the suggestion submitted by the UN Secretariat to the effect that such expressions in the UPU Convention as “colonies” and “protectorates” be replaced by ones like “trust territories” and “non-self-governing territories” which were the expressions used in the UN Charter and in the resolutions of the main organs of the UN, the Committee in part agreed to the UN recommendation and proposed to the Ottawa Congress that it make certain changes in the wording of the Convention. In regard to the Italian proposal that the trust territory of Somaliland under Italian administration be admitted to UPU, the Committee recommended that the Ottawa Congress approve the Italian request.