Thanks, for the update, Len. You're obviously more current on the postal
affairs of the three Freely Associated States (Marshalls, Micronesia, and Palau)
than am I. The last I knew, the US Postal Service was still running their post
offices for them. Now, you say that they're running their own. In any case,
their post offices are former USPS offices, so my basic premise (that the CIA is
using the names of the post offices serving the governments as the names of the
capitals) still holds. It holds absolutely in such places as the Northern
Marianas and American Samoa, which are American possessions and have USPS
offices.
The Freely Associated States might now run their own post offices, but they
appear to be very freely associated with the USPS as well. The USPS Domestic
Mail Manual (edition of January 6, 2005) says at section G011.2.2:
"Mail originating in the United States of America, its territories and
possessions, APOs, FPOs, and the United Nations, NY, for delivery in the Freely
Associated States, and mail originating in the Freely Associated States for
delivery within, among, and between the Freely Associated States and the United
States of America, its territories and possessions, APOs, FPOs, and the United
Nations, NY, is treated as if it were domestic mail."
This means that you or I could send a letter there for 37¢ instead of 80¢.
In the same vein, the Universal Postal Union's on-line roster of members at
http://www.upu.int/members/en/members.html lists at its very end "UN member
countries whose situation with regard to the UPU has not yet been settled."
There are four: Andorra, Marshalls, Micronesia, and Palau.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "L. A. Nadybal" <lnadybal@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 9:51 PM
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Re: capitals or administrative centers for small places
>
>
> Oooh, you touched on post offices - now you're in my bailiwick.
> The CIA doesn't mention these because the post offices in the
> Marshalls, Palau, and the other countries/nation states that have
> compacts of free association with the USA are not US post offices.
> They are post offices of those countries - the USPS assigned a ZIP
> code to them, nothing more. Mail from Japan to Palau, for example,
> doesn't need the US ZIP Code - if it did, the mailer in Japan would
> have to pay postage to the USA. The postmaster general and staff of
> the Republic of Palau Postal Service are not Americans nor employees
> or agents of the U.S. Postal Service. These countries issue and use
> their own stamps. The US does provide some foreign aid to these
> former trust territories, and the aid does take the form of shipments
> of US postal forms (like registered mail receipts, etc.), to save
> these relatively poor countries from having to spend money on printing
> their own. When the trusteeships ended, and these countries began
> issuing their own stamps, there was a time when US stamps could be
> affixed side-by-side with the local issues to make up needed postage -
> in fact the USPS stamp stock was on hand during these interim
> post-trusteeship - pre-independence periods, but as they were
> exhausted, the remittances to the USPS was phased out. These
> countries are indpendent now, and that dual-franking practice is no
> longer allowed.
>
> Regards
>
> LN
>
>
> --- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "Lowell G. McManus"
> <mcmanus71496@m...> wrote:
>> I think that the CIA's reasons for giving the capitals of the
> Marshall Islands,
>> the Northern Marianas, and American Samoa as they do is because
> those are the
>> names of the United States Post Offices serving as the addresses of
> the various
>> governments.