65B09_272_engl
THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
is the oldest specialised agency associated with the
United Nations. It is an intefgovernmental organisation, but employer and worker representatives
take part in its work along with the representatives
of governments.
Founded in 1919 as part of the World War 1 peace
settlement, the ILO was originally affiliated with the
League of Nations. When the League was dissolved
aftei World War II, the ILO survived, and in 1946 it
became the first specialised agency to join the United
Nations family. Today, with a membership of
countries.
„ carries forward its work to
improve labour conditions and raise living standards
evervwhere.
POSTAGE STAMPS AND
THE INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR ORGANISATION
U6^sX
^
OFFICIAL MAIL OF THE INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR OFFICE IN GENEVA
In 1920, one year after its foundation, the International Labour
Office, the secretariat of the ILO, began its work in Geneva. The
staff was at that time very small and postal correspondence in the
first three years represented no more than a fraction of the volume
of printed matter, parcels and letters now leaving the Office. ILO
envelopes surviving from that period and franked with ordinary
Swiss stamps are highly valued for another reason : most of them
were simply thrown away without a second thought. No one
could in fact have suspected how valuable such covers would
become later on.
POSTAGE STAMPS
The first series of stamps issued by the Swiss Postal Administration
in Bern especially for the ILO came out on 27 March 1923. These
were denominations from the regular
series with a four-line black overprint: " S.d.N. Bureau international
du Travail ". Their use was authorised for official ILO mail only and
they were not sold to private persons
over the counter. In 1942 and 1943,
an exception was made by the
Postal Administration, which allowed cancelled stamps to be sold
to private persons and dealers at
the collectors' counter in Bern and
by the Geneva main post office. By then, however, some denominations were no longer available from official sources.
Unused pre-war ILO issues now sometimes offered for sale come
partly from sheets that the postal authorities in Bern provided under
Universal Postal Union arrangements for reference use by national
postal administrations and that subsequently found their way into
private collections. Later, however, the Swiss Postal Administra-
tion began overprinting the sheets
in red with the word " Specimen " ;
this at least precluded any possibility
of finding the stamps in cancelled
form.
In recent years there have been
forgeries of certain of these prewar overprinted issues. Some of the
forgeries are difficult to detect,
because of the care with which
they have been lithographed.
Collectors sometimes specialise in
pre-war issues that have variations in
paper, gum or imprint. Special
catalogues also list stamps bearing
such mis-spelled overprints as HELVETIA, HEIVETIA and HELVETIA or revealing defects in the
printing plates. There are even
catalogued variations in the height
of overprints.
The only special stamps to be issued by the Swiss Postal Administration honouring the ILO and the League of Nations were the six
Stamps for the ILO issued during the Second World War (on 1 February 1944) bear the words COURRIER DU BUREAU INTERNATIONAL DU TRAVAIL overprinted on the regular Swiss series
values which came out in 1932 for the Disarmament Conference
and a series of four issued in 1938 (two stamps showing the Palais
des Nations and two the International Labour Office buildings).
in three different formats. This issue remained valid until the present series of six (later seven) values was issued for the ILO in 1956,
the only exceptions being that the 5 to 70 centime values in the small
and intermediate sizes were replaced by equivalent values overprinted from the regular 1949 Swiss issue " Landscape and Engineering". The three-centime stamp was not reissued, an increase in
Both series were subsequently overprinted in different manner to
serve as official stamps for both Organisations.
postal rates having deprived it of its usefulness.
The series of six stamps issued on 22 October 1956 was the first
machine are used nowadays. ILO franking machines can imprint
various slogans relating to the aims of the Organisation. The
40th Anniversary of the ILO in 1959 was, for instance, commemo-
The ILO has also used an octagonal cancellation stamp marked
" P.P. " (port payé) for packets of at least 50 printed items or
250 letters of the same format. This stamp is relatively rare since
envelopes printed with the legend " port payé " or a franking
to be specially designed for the ILO instead of consisting of overprinted Swiss stamps. On 24 October I960, two new values
(30 and 50 centimes) were added. The 40-centime value was not reprinted but the old 20-centime stamp was reissued in a new colour.
rated in this way. Undamaged envelopes and wrappers with this
form of franking find a place in many collections.
For reasons of convenience, outgoing ILO mail may also be franked
either with regular or special Swiss issues. These mixed frankings
of normal Swiss issues and the ILO stamps are now no less sought
after than the special cancellations discussed in a later chapter. The
Office has never used any semi-postal stamps; that is. stamps issued
of the current series have been issued on envelopes marking a
particular occasion.
for the benefit of some philanthropy.
Since 1956. the Swiss Postal Administration has issued its own
official first-day covers for ILO stamps. In addition, stamps
In August 1956, a separate Swiss post office was set up in the International Labour Office. It handles both official and private mail.
Letters cancelled there bear a circular obliteration inscribed
" GENÈVE 22 — Bureau International [or Int.] du Travail ". Cancellations may also bear the numbers 1, 2, or 10 (without the name),
1 being the number of the Central
Post Office and 2 being the number
of the Post Office at Geneva Central
Railway Station; these appear on
letters posted after closing time.
The number 10 is used on all official
and private letters posted at the
Swiss post office in the Palais
des Nations, seat of the European
Office of the United Nations, of
the World Health Organisation and of various other international
agencies. A sub-office of Office Number 10 operates when required
in the immediate vicinity of the Assembly Hall; it is used by delegates, ILO officials and others during the annual sessions of the
International Labour Conference. This sub-office sells new issues
and uses special cancellations for all the international organisations
which, like the ILO, hold conferences at the Palais des Nations.
For reasons of speed, franking machines are now used to frank most
of the outgoing ILO mail, including
envelopes, printed matter, wrappers
and parcels. However, correspondents or persons ordering publications from the office may, upon
special request, receive their mail
franked with ILO postage stamps.
Persons interested in collecting items
from the official mail of the ILO will
wish to note that the Organisation
also has a liaison office with the
United Nations in New York. That
office uses normal ILO envelopes printed with the New York
address and franked with normal United States stamps or with
United Nations stamps. The various branch and field offices
of the ILO use stamps of the countries in which they are
located. They 30-odd ILO Correspondents throughout the
world use envelopes printed with the address of their office and
national stamps. This provides wide scope for philatelists.
Private collections based on the ILO and the other international
organisations of the United Nations family have frequently been
shown at international exhibitions and have been awarded highest
honours.
Parcel cards—that is, cards to which stamps may have to be affixed
when parcels are sent from one country to another—are a further
source of interest to collectors. Postal administrations in many
ILO SPECIAL CANCELLATIONS
The normal cancellations found on the Office's outgoing mail from
Geneva have already been discussed. Special cancellations call
for separate comment. They fall into four groups and reflect
something of the structure of the ILO itself. These are cancellations
used—
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
countries sell these cards in bulk
from time to time. Bundles of cards
sold in this way often contain
stamps of high denominations, with
the result that some inexperienced
collectors separate the stamps from
the cards. But by doing so they
merely contribute to the rarity of
complete and undamaged cards,
8
which are in any case of greater value to the specialist collector than
the stamps alone.
ILO stamps, whether on letters, printed matter or parcels; letters
from ñeld and branch offices; parcel cards; meter cancellations;
first-day issues, and special cancellations—all these have been
touched upon in the preceding pages, and yet the full story has not
been told. For, in addition, several countries and the United
Nations Postal Administration in New York have issued special
stamps honouring the International Labour Organisation. These
stamps are listed on page 15 together with catalogue numbers. Many
of them are beautifully designed in splendid colours and constitute
striking tributes to the ILO. Official cancellations honouring the
work of the ILO also have appeared in a number of countries over
the years; but although some enthusiasts have tried, it would
be well nigh impossible to constitute a reasonably complete collection of such cancellations.
During the annual sessions of the International Labour
Conference ;
During sessions of the Governing Body;
During special ILO meetings;
On other occasions.
Cancellations in the first group
are of the normal round type but
with the words " GENEVE — Conférence Internationale du Travail ".
No special cancellations have been
used for sessions of the Governing
Body held in Geneva, but between
1919 and 1941 special cancellations
were used during sessions held
outside Geneva, as follows:
1st Session Washington, Nov. 1919
2nd
Paris, January 1920
3rd
London, March 1920
4th
Genoa, June 1920
8th
Stockholm, July 1921
12th
Rome, April 1922
13th
Interlaken, July 1922
37th
Berlin, 11-14 Oct. 1927
42nd
Warsaw, 4-10 Oct. 1928
48th
Paris, 24-29 April 1930
50th
Brussels, 7-12 Oct. 1930
60th
Madrid,
24-28 Oct. 1932
81st
,,
Prague, 6-9 Oct. 1937
85th
London,
25-27 Oct. 1938
90th
New
York,
ii
25 and 29 Oct. and
5 Nov. 1941
■■
For some sessions, specially inscribed envelopes were issued as well.
Among the special cancellations marking particular occasions,
those used during 1LO regional conferences in Africa, Asia and
the Americas, are of particular interest. They have always been
used on stamps of the host country.
There have also been special cancellations for certain meetings of
Industrial Committees and other bodies held outside Switzerland.
As a rule, these cancellations have indicated the theme of the
meeting. Such was, for instance, the case when the Maritime
Preparatory Technical Conference convened in Copenhagen in 1945
and when the Advisory Committee on Salaried Employees and
Professional Workers met in Cologne in 1959.
The first special cancellation used by the Swiss Postal Administration was a first-day cancellation inaugurating the new official series
of stamps on 22 October 1956. The inner circle of the cancellation
stamp reproduced James Vibert's statue " Human Effort ", which
depicts a group of workers bent under the weight of their exertion.
The statue stands on the grounds of the ILO in Geneva.
A similar special cancellation was used on 24 October 1960 for
first-day covers bearing the three new additional values. It showed
the entrance to the Office, with the statue of the first Director,
Albert Thomas, in the foreground.
This category further includes cancellations used in various countries to mark particular occasions, such as the 40th Anniversary of
the International Labour Organisation in 1959. Used for regular
10
stamps but on special envelopes,
they may rank as first-day covers.
The above summary cannot claim
to be complete, but it does show
how wide a field there is for collectors of special cancellations.
THE SUBJECT OF LABOUR
ON POSTAGE STAMPS
A glance at any world stamp catalogue is enough to show that few
themes recur more often than
labour: along with reproductions of
statesmen, religious objects and
landscapes, representations of men
at work are frequently encountered.
In modern times, the theme has
derived additional impetus from
the fact that every country is
concerned to show its working
people as the agents of progress.
Any prospective collector who might
be put off by the variety of material
should bear in mind the numerous
40.
JAHRE
I . A. O.
Internationale Arbeits-Organisation
opportunities for specialisation. For
the extensive subject of labour can
easily be subdivided, into various
occupations for instance. Almost
every country has stamps with
subjects taken from agriculture:
farmers ploughing, the cereal or rice
harvest, domestic animals. Mining,
transport, and the medical and
scientific professions are other examples of the almost endless variety
of occupations that provide subject
matter for stamps, both in regular
and special issues.
It is particularly interesting to study
stamps dealing either directly or
indirectly with the development of
labour legislation or with the trade
union movement, in 1950, the United States Postal Administration
brought out a special stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of
the birth of the trade union leader
Samuel Gompers, who, as chairman
of the labour Commission of the
11
Paris Peace Conference, was instrumental in the establishment of the
International Labour Organisation
in 1919. Labour leaders from Germany, France, Russia and elsewhere
also have been shown on postage
stamps.
The 10-pesos stamp issued in Mexico
in 1953 with a picture of Miguel
Hidalgo and the series issued in
1953 for the bicentenary of his
birth commemorate the leader of the
Mexican freedom movement, who
abolished slavery in his country.
A bronze statue of Miguel Hidalgo
stands in the grounds of the 1LO.
A collection on the theme of labour
legislation presupposes a sound
knowledge of recent social history;
it belongs to a very interesting
branch that has come to be known
as " applied philately ". However,
as far as the historical background
is
concerned,
any
standard
12
encyclopedia will provide enough facts to give cohesion to such a
collection.
But it is well to avoid specific suggestions. Each collector will
want to follow his own bent. It is this that gives a collection its
personality; and, after all, the purpose of building collecting around
a particular subject is to give expression to one's own views and
inclinations.
FURTHER POINTS OF INTEREST FOR THE COLLECTOR
Collectors from all parts of the world frequently write to the International Labour Office and its branch offices to ask for stamps
from incoming mail. The Office regrets it is unable to meet these
requests.
Nor is it in a position to send collectors mint stamps from the
official service series, inquiries regarding such stamps should be
sent directly to the Collectors' Section of the Swiss Postal Administration in Bern, from which the required stamps can be ordered.
The address is:
Sammlerdienst der Generaldirektion der Post-, Telegraphenund Telephonverwaltung
Parkterrasse 10
CH-3000 BERN Switzerland
The ILO does not possess a separate
service similar to the one maintained
by United Nations in New York and
in Geneva for the supply of mint
stamps of New York issues to
collectors.
However, visitors to the International Labour Office in Geneva may
buy ILO stamps over the counter
in Post Office No. 22 (or at the
sub-office of Post Office No. 10
during sessions of the International
13
Requests from collectors to be put in touch with other collectors
cannot be dealt with at the ILO; an advertisement in a philatelist
periodical should, however, have the desired effect.
The ILO's own collection includes most of the items discussed in
this booklet; it is shown at international exhibitions. Some of the
items in the ILO collection are reproduced in these pages.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Labour Conference) either singly
or in series and at no extra charge.
Purchasers may have these stamps
cancelled or may use them for their
private mail posted within the building. Officially,
however,
these
stamps are classified as " service
stamps "; they are intended for the
use of the Office. Private purchases
are tolerated but in principle for
philatelic purposes only. They cannot be used for registered mail.
MiSTELi, Charles, Prof., Elude sur les limbKS-posts cl ohliiéraiions de la Sociale des
Nal ions du Bureau international du Travail et des Conférences inlernaliouales:
Club philatéliqtie et aéropostal de Genève, 1943.
MISTELI, Charles. Prof., Coiuplémenl à l'étude...; C\ub philatélique et aéropostal de
Genève, 1948.
MéTALL, R.A., United Nations Philatelie Society Studies and Reports. No. I, Postage
Stamps and Postal Siaiionerv of the United Nations 1951-1958: United Nations
Philatelic Society, New York, 1959 and 1962.
United Nations Philatelic Society Studies and Reports No. 2: Postage Stamps of
Uniled Nations Philatelic Interesl; United Nations Philatelic Society, New York,
September 1959 and 1964.
UN/E — Vereinte Nationen/Vereintes Europa —Bricfmarkenzeilschrift ; published by
Dr. Detlef Schmidt, Hamburg-Du\enstedt, Rögenoort 12.
UN Handbook (irregular issues): Erwin Schmidt, Stuttgarl-Rohr. Brennlcnhau 13.
For any additional literature of a general nature on the work of the International
Labour Organisation, all inquiries should be addressed to the Public Information
Branch in Geneva or to branch offices.
CATALOGUE LISTING OF SERVICE STAMPS
OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
issued by the Swiss Postal Administration
IZumstein
1923-60
14
30102
LB1-
1-102
Yvert-TcllkT
CATALOGUE LISTING OF STAMPS ISSUED IN HONOUR
OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION
Issued by
Year
Scon
Gibbons
Michel
Yvert-Tellier
United Nations Postal
Administration,
New York
1954
25-26
29-30
29-30
33-34
Belgium
1930
222-24
391-93
288-290
305-307
Belgium
1958
467
1100
1100
1053
From Brussels World Exhibition series
Brazil
1952
720
823
782
511
ILO Regional Conference
American Member States)
China
1959
1228-31
323/6
327/30
294/97
40th Anniversary of the ILO
Costa Rica
1961
C323
566
590
PA320
25 cts. value in the series commemorating the 15th Anniversary of the United Nations
Czechoslovakia
1937
236-38
375-77
381-83
332A-32C
France
1930
256-57
481-82
249-50
264-65
Two values of the regular series (1926) overprinted:
"Congrès du B.I.T. 1930" for the Paris Governing
Body session
Germany
1927
363-65
421-423
407-09
398-400
Three values from the regular series over-printed
" LA.A. " for the Berlin Governing Body session
India
1959
325
263
120
113
40th Anniversary of the .ILO
Iran
1959
1136/7
968/9
1053-54
943-44
40th Anniversary of the ILO
Description
3 and 8 cent commemorative stamps
1930 issue overprinted •'B.I.T. Oct. 1930 "- for the
Brussels Governing Body session
(Fifth
1936/7 issues overprinted " B.I.T.
Prague Governing Body session
Conference
1937 ""
of
for the
Italy
1959
783/4
C529-30
1049-50
798-99
40th Anniversary of the ILO
Switzerland
1937
238-41
382-85
321-24
307-10
Reproductions of the ILO building and of the Palais
des Nations
Uruguay
1949
579-80
892-93
725-26
597-98
ILO Regional Conference
American Member States)
(Fourth
Conference of
1-103
15