It is precisely 125 years ago - on October 9.th, 1874 - that representatives of twenty-two postal service operators from around the world met in Bern to sign the Treaty that was to bear the city's name. In so doing they founded the General Postal Union, which acquired its present name of Universal Postal Union at a congress in Paris in 1878. The idea underlying its establishment was to further the development of international postal communications, an aim impossible to achieve merely on the basis of the bi-lateral agreements between states which existed at the time. On July 1.st, 1948 the...