--- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "Lowell G. McManus"
<mcmanus71496@m...> wrote:

> 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.

RE: Above. True, they were USPS, but the premise that an office
"served the government" is odd - In Palau, there is only one post
office, all mail is cancelled "Koror". It could have been at
Babelthuap and still served the government in Koror. In other island
groups, more than one post office serves government offices - they are
on islands - and the government is present on all of them (at least
the major populated ones).

It holds absolutely in such places as the Northern

> Marianas and American Samoa, which are American possessions and have

USPS

> offices.

These aren't independent states - the the capital isn't necessarily
where the post office is that serves the government - USAID is out on
many islands - that's "government" - which government's capital is
meant? The capital "city" anmd the seat of government could be in two
different places, and at both places, post offices could be operating
that served "the government".

>
> 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¢.

RE: "As if" - that means "it isn't, but we'll handled it the same way
as domestic mail". It's like Panama and the Canal Zone Treaty - the
U.S. was entitled to act "as though it were sovereign".

RE: "37-cents v. 80-cents - you mentioned mail going out to them from
the US - they can charge whatever they want for outound mail in the
other direction. They could provide for an inter-island (or other)
rate below 37-cents, if they want.

They are very much freely associated with the USPS, because it pays to
handle their outbound mail through Honolulu, even though the cost to
provide the service costs the US more than it costs to handle mail
within the 50 states. The US subsidizes their postal service like it
does for the military (even though the DoD pays to move all mail
outside the country, to, from and between the overseas bases)

In prior editions of the DMM, mail from the UNHQ NY to the USA was
specifically excluded from being domestic mail, while mail to it was
considered domestic. This was so, even given that the UN post office
(except the philatelic counter and philatelic mail order fulfillment
office) was manned by the US post office personnel and the UN had to
pay the US (still does) the face value of each UN stamp affixed to
outgoing mail.

> 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.

RE: Andorra. It has no postal service of its own - French and
Spanish post offices operate side-by-side in major towns in Andorra,
and both countries national postal services issue stamps inscribed
Andorra for use at their respective post offices. There's no need for
Andorra to join the UPU.

It's always been the case that nations not in the UPU need sponsoring
countries through which their mail passes and for which the sponsor
acts as financial settlement agent vis-a-vis the UPU. Bhutan issued
stamps from 1962, but didn't become a member of the UPU until five or
six years after that. It's early international mail was handled as
Indian mail by the world community. The two countries concluded a
postal treaty in 1961 or early 62 to regulate the process. Palau et
al are "sponsored" by the USPS right now.

Regards
LN

>
> Lowell G. McManus
> Leesville, Louisiana, USA
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "L. A. Nadybal" <lnadybal@c...>
> 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.