The day of the stamp

hen the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie proposed, at its 1935 Brussels Conference, that member nations should set aside one day each year and call it Stamp Day, the motion received enthusiastic applause and vociferous support. Scores of European delegates eager to encourage activities that brought nations together rather to the boiling point of war voted for it. Alas, the realities of life throughout much of the Continent during the next two decades all but ruled out Stamp Days. Delegates returning to their home countries after the 1935 FIP conference probably wondered if they would find even enough postmen exempt from military service to collect and deliver routine