The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government departmentBennett, Edward
History
The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government department
Bennett, Edward
Postal service -- Great Britain -- History
Erected at Berne to commemorate the founding of the Postal
Union. On the ledge of a rock is seated a woman, whose hand
rests on the escutcheon of the town of Berne. On the summit
of the rock a bank of clouds, which to glide into space,
bears up a sphere around which float five female figures,
symbols of the five divisions of the world, offering letters
to each other.
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Perhaps I may add an extract from a speech made at the conclusion of the
same Conference by Sir Spencer Walpole, who was at that time Secretary
of the British Post Office: “One word more, gentlemen. We are going back
to our duties and our toils: but we shall never forget our meetings in
this beautiful city of Washington, where we have worked to improve the
postal communications of the world. At this moment I recall the morning
on which we found ourselves collected in a little church of this city.
The representatives of sixty nations and I know not how many religions
were met together to show respect to a colleague unfortunately deceased,
and to commend his soul to the God of all nations of the world—both
eastern and western. That gathering seems to me a type of our Congress.
We, the delegates of sixty nations, found ourselves united in the same
thought—I had almost said in the same religion. I hope that this thought
will more and more dominate our work, and that the improvement of the
communications of the world at which we have laboured will lead to
friendship among the nations, to brotherliness among men, and to
universal peace.”
Only those who have been present at one of these Congresses can fully
realise how much they make for the results hoped for by Sir Spencer
Walpole. It is a revelation of the community of interest which is shared
by all the nations of the world in the matter of international
intercourse. And of course the effect on other departments of life is
wide-reaching.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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