Evening star., 1940-07-21
By James Waldo Faucet.

i 1XS Okoxx1
By James Waldo Fa,cceff.
The Post once Department will
operate . branch postal station and
provide special cancellation for
the annual convention Of the Amer.
lean Philatelic Society. Hotel Stat
Ter, Buffalo. Monday to Friday,
August II to l6.
Hugh M. Clark. editor Of SCOTS
Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue,
has been elected q member of the
Board OF Governors of the Collec-
tors Club Of New York. He sue
ceeds the late Edward s. Knapp.
Liechtenstein announces that q
new regular postage series Is in
preparation.
An ofncial publicity release from
Monrovia discloses that Liberia will
establish philatelic agency at the
ONCE Of its Consul General, 277
BroadwAy, New York City, July 20,
after which date, 1t Is explained,
mo orders will be filled from any
post ONCE in Liberia"
Twenty-one years after he wrote
1t, Lewis Gannett, book critic Of the
New York Herald Tribune, has
printed the following impression
of the Peace Conference of 1919:
ut was just like high school COM
mencement. We, the press, repre-
sented the relatives and friends. The
diplomats were the graduating class.
The only difference was that we,
the relatives and friends, whispered
even more than the relatives and
friends usually do. There was q
steady murmur throughout the cere-
mony, broken only by loud French
Kisses, Assist and English and
American 'growls sit down! Down
in 'front.'
"The road to Versailles had been
lined with curious crowds, waiting
to catch a glimpse Of some near
celebrity, pitiful people who took
1t all seriously. At all the corners
where the chauffeurs of the great
might 60 astray we're blue-clad
poilus waving red signal f1ags-not
little squares of red such as we
use on our railroads, but great en-
blems Of revolution. 1t must have
given some of the diplomats a
start.
"You could almost take 1t seri-
ously as you rolled through the
double lines of staring people out
through the Bois and st. Cloud.
But once inside the chateau at Ver-
sailles you whitfield the real air OF
the day. The French government
had gone to the pains of making
special postmark and if you had a
ticket to admit you to the sacred
precincts you could buy picture post
cards and stamps and have them
Cancelled Versailles Chateau Con-
gres de la Paix l5h g PM 28-6-19.'
While the peace was being signed
you could see the high ambassa-
dors-the great men who had come
from all the corners of the globe
to negotiate and sign the peace
laboriously address souvenir post
cards. The post Office, they told
us afterward, took in some hum
dreds Of thousands of francs in Ver-
sailles Chateau that day and the
postal clerks worked so fast stamp
ing (canceling) that a second shift
had to be called in. Some of the
dignitaries bought sets of stamps
of all denominations. carefully
pasted them upon sheets of white
paper and then had them stamped
with the souvenir postmark. What
concessionaire benefited by the sale
Of picture post cards was not re-
vealed."
To his original text Mr.. Gannett
adds the postscript: Il think I
still have. somewhere. some of those
souvenir -postmarked stamps"
Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News for
July IS contains another of a long
series of articles by B. w. H. Poole
of Los Angeles on the proven clas-
sizes Of philately. The subject of
this latest monograph is: THE
First Stamps Of Nevis"
Deputy Third Assistant Postmas-
ter General Roy M. North is plan
ming to attend the American Phila-
teIc Society Convention, Hotel
Statler, Buffalo, Monday to Friday,
August IL to 16. Others intending
to be present at the annual gather
ing are David D. Caldwell, chair
man, Postage Stamp Centenary
Committee: Philip Simms Warren,
treasurer. Washington Philatelic So
ciety; David H. Davenport, WASH
ington correspondent of Mekeel's
Weekly Stamp News. and Mrs.
Catherine L. Manning, philatelic
curator, Smithsonian Institution.
The stamp editor of The Star will
preside at the philatelic writers
breakfast, which is to be one OF
the features of the convention pro-
gram.
Postmaster Louis H. Hoskins of
Anaheim. Calf, collects unusual